Legal actuation
How Ex Ante Legal Behavior Drives Inequality
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4084294 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Emily S Taylor Poppe (0000-0002-1229-016X), Megan Doherty Bea (0000-0003-1533-3871) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 58 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 353-382 |
| Publication date | 2024-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Law & Society Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0023-9216 • E-ISSN: 1540-5893 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/lsr.2024.27 |
| OpenAlex | W4403890423 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
Individuals routinely engage in instrumental transactional legal behavior, from generating tax returns to signing leases to negotiating employment terms. While some individuals undertake these activities equipped with the skills, knowledge, and capacity to behave strategically, others do not. In this article, we introduce the concept of legal actuation to describe this legal behavior and theorize its role as a source of inequality under the law. Using estate planning as an empirical example, we consider how variation in legal actuation may serve to reproduce economic inequalities and investigate the role of legal socialization, knowledge, and capability as mechanisms of advantage. In doing so, we draw attention to an understudied dimension of everyday legal behavior that has important implications for equal justice and the relationship between law and inequality
Economics · Ex-ante · Inequality · Law and economics · Macroeconomics · Political science · Discrimination and Equality Law · Human Rights and Development · Law · Legal Education and Practice Innovations · Mathematics
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |