Legal systems change in response to social and technological shifts

Evidence

This is a classic question of legal scholarship. There is no definite answer; some people even deny that the question makes sense. A small band of people with spears and knives has legal needs very different from ours; a feudal system generates one kind of law, big-​ city America quite another. Changes in social systems and technology necessarily push a system toward new burdens and new habits. Classical Roman law did not worry about custody of a baby born after in vitro fertilization, nor about copyrighting software. Legal systems are never static. They change with changing times. — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law, 118

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Friedman’s History (its companion volume) on the social sources of legal change — connects to: The Civil War marked a legal-epoch divide but did not cause the industrial age — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 272; Growing awareness of irreversible environmental harms transformed law’s treatment of time — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 301; Codified law ages while human circumstances change continuously — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 4655 (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• The common law adapts to social and economic change #exemplifies (0.90) — Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide to Clear…, 1311
• Technological change forces courts to extend old statutes to unanticipated situations. #exemplifies (0.88) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1421
• Legal change on sexual morality tracks shifts in the larger society #exemplifies (0.85) — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law, 1436
• Legal prohibition causes attitudinal change rather than merely reflecting it #complicates (0.80) — , The Rod and the Child, 10919
• Technological control over risk expanded legal rights and lawsuits #exemplifies (0.80)
• Legal classifications and rules evolve through ongoing application to cases #expands (0.80) — Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide to Clear…, 243
• Crises drive reactive lawmaking while slow social shifts shape law durably #qualifies (0.80) — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 4406
• Inductive reasoning allows the law to adapt to changing societal times. #expands (0.80) — Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide to Clear…, 613