This book's basic hypothesis - which it proposes to test with a cognitive-sociological approach
- is that legal behavior like every form of human behavior is directed and framed by
biosocial constraints that are neither entirely genetic nor exclusively cultural. As such from
a sociological perspective the law can be seen as a super-meme that is as a biosocial
constraint that develops only in complex societies. This super-meme theory by highlighting a
fundamental distinction between defensive and assertive biases might explain the false
contradiction between law as a static and historical phenomenon and law as a dynamic and
promotional element. Socio-legal scholars today have to face the challenge of pursuing a truly
interdisciplinary approach connecting all the fields that can contribute to building a modern
theory of normative behavior and social action. Understanding and framing concepts such as
rationality emotion or justice can help to overcome the significant divide between micro and
macro sociological knowledge. Social scientists who are interested in the law must be able to
master the epistemological discourses of different disciplines and to produce fruitful
syntheses and bridge-operations so as to understand the legal phenomenon from each different
point of view. The book adopts four perspectives: sociological psychological
biological-evolutionary and cognitive. All of them have the potential to be mutually integrated
and constitute that general social science that provides common ground for exchange. The goal
is to arrive at a broad and integrated view of the socio-legal phenomenon paving the way for a
comprehensive theory of norm-oriented and norm-perceived actions.
