Law's Evolution and Human Understanding presents an evolutionary account of law and government. In it, Laurence Claus contends that the law of any human community is a self-generating, self-recognizing system of human communications that signals likely action within that community. Law in effect is a system that uniquely serves and symbiotically defines a community regardless of any moral right claims.
Understanding law as a self-fulfilling signaling system frees us to discard the fabrications of authority rooted in creationist accounts of law and government. Law's Evolution and Human Understanding articulates a fresh conception of law that builds on Oliver Wendell Holmes' celebrated insights concerning law's predictive potential.
The book considers important implications of this new understanding for how we individually make moral choices, how we read law, and some of the many other ways that law affects our lives.