The Law as a Specific Social Technique

THE living together of human beings is characterized by the set- ting up of institutions that regulate this living together.Such an institution is called an "order."The living together of individuals, in itself a biological phenomenon, becomes a social phenomenon by the very fact of being regulated.Society is ordered living together, or, more accurately put, society is the ordering of the living together of individuals.The function of every social order is to bring about certain mutual behavior of individuals; to induce them to certain positive or negative behavior, to certain action or abstention from action.To the individual the order appears as a complex of rules that determine how the individual should conduct himself.These rules are called norms.According to the manner in which the socially desired behavior is brought about, various types of social orders can be distinguished.These types-it is ideal types that are to be presented here-are characterized by the specific motivation resorted to by the order to induce individuals to behave as desired.The motivaion may be indirect or direct.The order may attach certain advantages to its observance and certain disadvantages to its non-observance, and hence make desire for the promised advantage or fear of the threatened disadvantage a motive for behavior.Behavior conforming to the order is achieved by a sanction provided by the order itself.The principle of reward and punishment-the principle of retribution-fundamental for social living, consists in associating conduct in accordance with the order and conduct contrary to the order with a promised advantage or a threatened disadvantage respectively, as sanctions.The order can, however, even without promise of a reward in case of