LAW AND ECONOMICS DISCOVERS SOCIAL NORMS

Although Ronald Cease, Guide Calabresi, Richard Posner, and the other founders of classical law and economics accomplished much, they exagge rated the role of law in the overall system of social control and, con versely, underestimated the importance of socialization and the inform al enforcement of social norms. They also implicitly placed too much s tress on individuals' hunger for material, as opposed to status, rewar ds. The upsurge in the 1990s of scholarly interest in socialization, n orms, and status does not threaten the demise of classical law and eco nomics but rather promises to enrich it.