This project will draw on the findings from projects 1-5 to develop a Behavioral Jurisprudence. This new legal theory makes the ex-ante function of law more central and it accounts for the law’s assumptions about behaviour.

To do so, it  first synthesizes the insights about the behavioural assumptions of those tasked to operate the law, studied in projects 2-4, and compares and analyses differences in different jurisdictions and different legal domains.

As a second step it, It analyses why legal practitioners may develop assumptions about behaviour that are misaligned with science. Here it assesses four different hypotheses. The first, draws on project 5, and looks at whether general behavioural biases that all people have are at play here. The second, looks at whether socialization in law school and during legal practice has been of influence. Here it uses the same survey as in projects 2-5, but then applies it to law students from different years of study to assess whether duration of studies affects the behavioural assumptions. It also qualitatively analyses text books and training materials from law schools and legal practice to see how biases may be shaped substantively in training. And as a third hypothesis, the project will look at the extent to which science is understandable, actionable and practical to be used in legal practice. Here it will draw on findings from Project 1, as well as on what interviewed subjects have indicated in projects 2-4.

As a third step, the project will then draw on the first two steps to develop a behavioural correction to the field of law. This behavioural jurisprudence will demonstrate exactly what the major behavioural assumptions and biases are amongst legal practitioners, how these originate in existing mainstream legal thought and training, and how these root causes can best be addressed through a new approach to law that makes successful internalization of positive conduct come at the core of normative legal questions of right and wrong.  It will guide how the field of law can come to incorporate the social and behavioural science and reduce the behavioural biases in legal thinking, education, and practice.