For the law to be effective, it must be seen as legitimate by the population. Legitimacy has three components:

1. People must feel they have a voice, and that if they speak up, they will be heard.
2. The law must be predictable. There has to be a reasonable expectation that the rules tomorrow are going to be roughly the same as the rules today.
3. The authority has to be fair. It can't treat one group differently from another.

When the British were seen as violating these principles in Northern Ireland, it created an opening for the IRA to position themselves as the legitimate authority in Catholic areas. Authority isn't just about power - it's about getting people to want to submit to your power. Establishing legitimacy is a precondition for authority to function.

Section: 3, Chapter: 7

Author: Malcolm Gladwell

For tyranny to take hold, professionals must ignore or abandon their ethical codes and simply follow the orders of the regime. This was crucial in Nazi Germany, where lawyers provided cover for illegal orders, doctors participated in grotesque experiments, businessmen exploited slave labor, and civil servants enabled genocidal policies. If key professions had simply adhered to basic ethics around human rights and human dignity, the Nazi machine would have had a much harder time implementing its agenda. Professionals must consult their conscience and be guided by ethics even, and especially, when a regime claims the situation is an exception.

Section: 1, Chapter: 5

Author: Timothy Snyder

In states with strict abortion bans post-Roe, medical professionals are struggling to navigate vague legal language and provide appropriate care without risking their licenses or freedom. Common dilemmas include:

• When a pregnancy complication becomes "life-threatening" enough to allow termination
• Whether mental health crises like suicidality qualify for health exceptions
• How imminent the risk of death or disability must be to avoid prosecution
• Lack of clear definitions around terms like "abortion" vs "miscarriage management"

Doctors report delaying care, avoiding certain procedures, or sending patients out of state rather than risk a felony charge. Hospital lawyers have become de facto consultants on routine OB-GYN decisions. Politicians without medical expertise are setting unworkable standards that put pregnant people in danger.

Section: 3, Chapter: 10

Author: Rebecca Little, Colleen Long

A patchwork of state laws, emboldened since the fall of Roe, increasingly criminalize adverse pregnancy outcomes and police the behavior of pregnant people. These include:

• Homicide and abuse charges for drug use, accidents, or suspected self-harm during pregnancy
• Civil lawsuits enabling state control of medical decisions (forced C-sections, surgery, etc.)
• Removal of "life of the mother" exception for ending ectopic or dangerous pregnancies

Low-income women and women of color are disproportionately targeted, reflecting America's long history of reproductive control of marginalized groups. With embryonic/fetal personhood on the rise, all pregnant people are increasingly treated as potentially criminal or suspect - guilty until proven innocent.

Section: 3, Chapter: 9

Author: Rebecca Little, Colleen Long

In the 1990s, crime fell precipitously across the United States. Violent crime plummeted 18% in the span of just three years from 1993-1996. This caught many experts by surprise, as the prevailing forecast at the time had been for a coming crime wave fueled by the crack epidemic and a rise of "superpredator" juvenile offenders.

So what explains the unexpected crime drop? The authors argue it was not the commonly cited reasons like innovative policing, stricter gun control, a stronger economy, or more use of capital punishment. While those may have played a role, the data suggests the real answer is a surprising one - the legalization of abortion 20 years prior, following Roe v. Wade. According to the authors, this was the hidden factor that quietly removed a large cohort of would-be violent criminals from the population.

Section: 1, Chapter: 4

Author: Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner

Thaler and colleagues sought to bring insights from behavioral economics to the analysis of legal rules and regulations.

This behavioral law and economics approach contrasts with traditional law and economics, which relies heavily on rational choice theory. For instance, behavioral research shows the Coase theorem may fail due to endowment effects and fairness concerns, even with low transaction costs.

Likewise, behavioral findings on limited self-control, overconfidence, and impatience suggest regulations like mandatory retirement savings or consumer protection may sometimes be justified, challenging libertarian anti-paternalism dogma.

Behavioral law and economics aims to make legal analysis more realistic and empirically-grounded. But it remains controversial, especially the paternalism debate. Nonetheless, it has grown rapidly and influenced numerous legal domains, from contracts to criminal justice to corporate governance.

Section: 6, Chapter: 27

Author: Richard Thaler

Miscarriage and stillbirth are rarely eligible for bereavement leave, forcing employees to take sick or vacation days - if they have any. The lack of standard policies means loss parents are at the mercy of individual supervisors. Common issues include:

• No time off to physically recover or grieve
• Having to share private medical details to "prove" the loss
• Fear of professional consequences for taking "too much" time
• Insensitive comments from coworkers who don't understand the impact
• Policies that only apply after 20 weeks or for funerals/cremations
• Needing to revise projects or reduce workload while emotionally fragile

A handful of states and companies are expanding leave to cover pregnancy loss and fertility treatment, recognizing the physical and psychological toll. But millions still suffer in silence while corporate platitudes of "family friendly" policies ring hollow.

Section: 3, Chapter: 12

Author: Rebecca Little, Colleen Long

If our choices are shaped by factors beyond our control, can we justify punishing wrongdoers? A deterministic view requires rethinking, but need not abolish, criminal justice:

• Retributive rationales for punishment are undermined, as offenders are seen as unfortunate, not inherently evil.
• Consequentialist rationales - deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation - still hold, as they don't require metaphysical free will.
• Punishment of some sort remains necessary to shape behavior and protect society, even if offenders aren't ultimately "blameworthy."
• The priority shifts from making offenders "pay" to changing the conditions that drive crime in the first place.

Just as we separate dangerous but "innocent" people like violent Alzheimer's patients without moral condemnation, a deterministic criminal justice system would aim at preventing harm and maximizing flourishing, not meting out just deserts.

Section: 1, Chapter: 12

Author: Brian Klaas