Legal rules and coordination: a behavioral approach

• Applicant: Dr. Leonard Hoeft
• Subject Area: Principles of Law and Jurisprudence
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 564097852

How do individuals decide whether to follow a rule? Do they strictly adhere to its text, or do they take its purpose into account when the two diverge? These questions lie at the heart of legal interpretation, a topic long debated in jurisprudence. Traditionally, studies have focused on the theoretical side of interpretation, often through vignette-based experiments, where participants evaluate hypothetical rule violations. While these studies reveal important insights - such as a preference for textual adherence as a focal point for coordination - they fail to account for the decision-making process inherent in legal applications. In real-world contexts, legal interpretation does not occur in isolation. Whether someone complies with a rule (legal compliance) or judges others' actions (legal judgment), such decisions often carry tangible consequences for the decision-maker or third parties. As such, the interpretive process cannot be separated from the influence of selfish, moral, or social preferences. For instance, a purely textual interpretation of a rule may seem less salient if it leads to an unfair punishment or conflicts with broader social expectations. Despite its importance, the behavioral dimension of rule-following - as opposed to rule-breaking - remains underexplored. This project seeks to fill these gaps by investigating how individuals interpret and adhere to rules in incentivized decision-making settings. It moves beyond hypothetical judgments to explore behavior where choices matter. Specifically, we test how individuals resolve the tension between.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Poland
• Cooperation Partner: Dr. Bartosz Janik