van Klink, Bart

Dr. Bart van Klink is Associate Professor in Jurisprudence at the Department of Jurisprudence and Legal History at the Faculty of Law in Tilburg, the Netherlands Dr. van Klink graduated (cum laude) on a study on the communicative working of legislation. His main fields of interests are legal sociology and legal hermeneutics. In 2002, he wrote -by request of the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy -a study on the relationship between law and power in the Dutch Rechtsstaat.

Social and Symbolic Effects of Legislation Under the Rule of Law

2005 0-7734-6164-7
This book addresses a set of intriguing and complex questions in the study of law and society. How does legislation affect the behavior of citizens? What role do attitudes play in rule following and under what conditions can legislation influence these attitudes? The book juxtaposes two approaches to this set of questions. The social working approach is an exercise in empirical sociology of law, seeking a behavioral explanation of rule- following. The communicative approach to legislation investigates legislation as a communication process in both an empirical and a normative sense. The ensuing debate sheds light on the uses and dangers of legislation as an instrument of democratic governance under the rule of law.