Law Commons^™

Cyberian Signals, Steven A. Hetcher

University of Richmond Law Review

In Law and Social Norms, Eric Posner offers an original and important theory of the emergence of norms. According to Posner, norms are collections of signals. He develops his signaling account in a variety of contexts, including criminal law, family law, political participation, and racial discrimination. This article extends Posner's theory to cyberspace, a domain of social organization not touched on in Posner's book. In particular, I will test Posner's theory by examining how well it explains the emergence of Web site privacy norms. Part One will examine signaling theory. Part Two will explore privacy norms in some detail, and …