Woran man Recht erkennt, wenn man nicht ins Gesetzbuch schaut

This short article deals with how people recognise law when they are not consulting the legal code. It introduces Eugen Ehrlich’s classic position of legal pluralism and his view that law can be defined by the intensity of emotions in reaction to law breaking. The author shows that an emotional response can indeed alert people, drawing on his empirical study “Recognising Modern Slavery” (Machura et al. 2019). Once they have become suspicious, individuals can turn to a legal authority/expert.