Socio-legal studies Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

This article considers local-level disputing in Papua New Guinea by bringing two theories into play: spatial justice, borrowed from the ‘geographical’ turn in legal theory, and relational justice, from the anthropology of law. Disputes... more

This article considers local-level disputing in Papua New Guinea by bringing two theories into play: spatial justice, borrowed from the ‘geographical’ turn in legal theory, and relational justice, from the anthropology of law. Disputes negotiated by means of the country’s village courts system are sometimes characterised by metropolitans as institutions that dispense peace instead of justice. I argue, through a comparison of contemporary and historical examples from local disputing processes, that village courts do exercise a form of justice, but it is not a justice of closure or peace. Rather, it is the justice of opening the space of relations between disputing parties, as a technique of recognising the ongoing potential of such relations.

Based on interviews with bureaucrats and judges in several Swiss cantons, this article analyzes how bureaucrats decide to order immigration detention and how the judicial review shapes their decisions. The authors argue that discretionary... more

Based on interviews with bureaucrats and judges in several Swiss cantons, this article analyzes how bureaucrats decide to order immigration detention and how the judicial review shapes their decisions. The authors argue that discretionary decision-making regarding immigration detention is structured by the web of relationships in which decision-makers are embedded and affected by the practices of other street-level actors. The varying cantonal configurations result in heterogenous bureaucratic practices that affect the profiles and numbers of persons being detained. In particular, differences in judges' interpretation of legal principles, as well as in their expectations, strongly affect bureaucratic decisions.

The essay deals with the judicial activity of a criminal court of the Regno Lombardo-Veneto in the firs half of nineteenth century. It is particularly analysed the legal reasoning of the judges in front of crimes which were submitted to... more

The essay deals with the judicial activity of a criminal court of the Regno Lombardo-Veneto in the firs half of nineteenth century. It is particularly analysed the legal reasoning of the judges in front of crimes which were submitted to their jurisdiction. Their discussions were about the codex foresight, but also of clues and evidences.

Unlike the bulk of penological scholarship dealing with managerialist reforms, this article calls for greater theoretical and research attention to the often pernicious impact of managerialism on criminal justice professionals. Much in an... more

Unlike the bulk of penological scholarship dealing with managerialist reforms, this article calls for greater theoretical and research attention to the often pernicious impact of managerialism on criminal justice professionals. Much in an ideal-typical fashion, light is shed on: the reasons why contemporary penal bureaucracies endeavor systematically to strip criminal justice work of its inherently affective nature; the structural forces that ensure control over officials; the processes by which those forces come into effect; and the human consequences of submission to totalitarian bureaucratic milieus. It is suggested that the heavy preoccupation of present-day penality with the predictability and calculability of outcomes entails the atomization of professionals and the dehumanization of their work. This is achieved through a kaleidoscope of direct and indirect mechanisms that naturalize and/or legitimate acquiescence.

This paper explains why so much soft law is widely adopted and followed despite lacking legal and coercive force. It argues that legal standards are susceptible to network effects. Network effects occur when the value of a standard to a... more

This paper explains why so much soft law is widely adopted and followed despite lacking legal and coercive force. It argues that legal standards are susceptible to network effects. Network effects occur when the value of a standard to a user increases as the number of other agents using the same standard grows, which in turn draws more users to the standard. This can trigger a spontaneous coalescence around a standard in a " snowball effect " fashion. The paper argues that many areas of soft law exhibit strong network effects, rendering such soft law uniquely calibrated to induce voluntary adoption and even compliance. The model helps explain why certain soft law gains traction, and has important implications for international governance. Finally, the paper argues that policy-makers can strategically harness this dynamic to stimulate legal harmonization, but cautions that policy-makers must also remain mindful of the negative consequences that network effects can generate.

Some of Law and Economics’ basic claims have come to be criticized as a result of empirical findings that question their viability. Particularly, the premise that agents consistently act rationally and with their self-interest in mind... more

Some of Law and Economics’ basic claims have come to be criticized as a result of empirical findings that question their viability. Particularly, the premise that agents consistently act rationally and with their self-interest in mind seems problematic. What the consequences of the criticism mean for Law and Economics’ tenability depends largely on the questions whether (1) some elements are unassailable to the alternative’s objections and (2) the alternative is a systematic whole. It is argued that Law and Economics may be salvaged, if it is minimized and its ambitions are tempered. This means focusing on the stable, a priori, elements inherent to it.

The major aim of this article is to examine how migrations affect private governance, taking as a case study the Prud'homie de pêche, a private order that has governed the fishery of Marseille for the past six centuries. Scholarship... more

The major aim of this article is to examine how migrations affect private governance, taking as a case study the Prud'homie de pêche, a private order that has governed the fishery of Marseille for the past six centuries. Scholarship generally argues that social norms guarantee the efficiency of private orders and their ability to resist the arrival of newcomers. My data suggests that the Prud'homie has failed to accommodate social changes prompted by migratory flows, not despite but because of its social norms. This paper suggests that social norms are not only powerful tools of governance for private orders, but also forces of inertia that can prevent these orders from accommodating social changes.

This is the introduction to a symposium comprising four papers examining the relations between law, culture and things. They inquire into human links with the material world. These links are mediated through technology which, in its many... more

This is the introduction to a symposium comprising four papers examining the relations between law, culture and things. They inquire into human links with the material world. These links are mediated through technology which, in its many forms, enables humans to fulfil material needs. Tools and their social organisation provide food, clothing, shelter and communication. Technologies can be categorised as 'hard', involving manufacture and transport; 'soft' information and communication technologies; and 'wet' technologies of human sustenance, such as food production and preparation.
This collection of papers examines the use of soft technology in law (in record-keeping and artificial intelligence), as well as law as a means of directing the uses of technologies that impinge on the natural environment (ecological jurisprudence) and the human body (nutrition and parenting).
The project emphasises the importance of applying theoretical and empirical analysis to practical technological issues, because only through understanding all aspects of the relations between technology, humans and the environment can we identify problems and find solutions: political, cultural, ethical and theoretical. This collection aims to show how applying theory and research to practice can identify the sources of these issues and propose solutions.

This article addresses the implications of a new resistance to hate crime legislation that has yet to be addressed in the mainstream legal debate in Canada or the United States. It comes mainly from groups in the US that represent lgbtq... more

This article addresses the implications of a new resistance to hate crime legislation that has yet to be addressed in the mainstream legal debate in Canada or the United States. It comes mainly from groups in the US that represent lgbtq communities who are poor and/or of color. These communities are particularly vulnerable to victimization by hate crime yet the groups have repeatedly opposed the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity/expression in hate crime legislation. This article addresses the underlying rationale of the new resistance and its implications for the mainstream debate. It begins by undertaking a comparative analysis of hate crime legislation in Canada and the US. It then considers the mainstream legal debate in both countries as well as some statistical data on hate crime. The third section turns to the new resistance as well as emerging data on the connection between victimization and the criminal legal system itself. It then draws on the legal theory of Walter Benjamin to reveal limits in the way that the mainstream legal debate conceptualizes criminalization. The final section of the article considers the implications of Benjamin’s concept of law for both the mainstream debate and the new resistance.

This paper aims to describe the asymmetric interactions between lawyers and lay people in courtrooms, The hearings are an interesting environment where we can observe these interactions between experts and lay people. The research is... more

This paper aims to describe the asymmetric interactions between lawyers and lay people in courtrooms, The hearings are an interesting environment where we can observe these interactions between experts and lay people. The research is based on the 20 hearings of the "Juges de Proximité" in courtrooms in southern France counting over sixty hours of observation in five different courts. The "Juges de Proximité" were created in 20030 They are non-professional judges who have the law graduation, They treat small civil claims and the misdemeanors. The main goal is to provide a thick description of these interactions for analyze with the ethnomethodological
point of view. As a result, I could describe a reflexive activity between lawyers and lay people. In one hand, the lawyers explain the law in ordinary language while the lay people make a struggle to understand the legal assessments for practical purposes. This activity is possible due to the capacity of creating cognitive tools using contextual accounts. Finally, the court hearings work allows observing how the law is accomplished with the cognitive tools which are developed by the interactions of lawyers and lay people.

Directeur d'ouvrage: Albertone (Manuela), Castiglione (Dario) Contributeurs: Albertone (Manuela), Brunet (Pierre), Carnino (Cecilia), Castiglione (Dario), Christin (Olivier), de Francesco (Antonino), Douglass (Robin), Frobert (Ludovic),... more

This dissertation is a social, political, and cultural history of the organized Chilean legal profession in the first half of the twentieth century. It explores the causes for the creation of the Chilean Bar Association and its Legal Aid... more

This dissertation is a social, political, and cultural history of the organized Chilean legal profession in the first half of the twentieth century. It explores the causes for the creation of the Chilean Bar Association and its Legal Aid Service in the mid-1920s and follows their evolution until the mid-1960s.
The relative success of the Bar Association in imposing its model of lawyering in the first half of the twentieth century allows us to understand why the legalistic framework that Chilean lawyers had inherited from the nineteenth century did not change over the course of the twentieth despite the momentous social and political evolution that both profession and country experienced in this period.
The history of the Chilean Bar Association thus provides an institutional explanation for the continuity of ideas about the law in the face of accelerated social transformations. At the same time, by revealing the tensions and the resistance that this project faced, the history of the Bar also reveals the gears that would eventually lead to the legal profession’s historical change.

Following the death of 17-year-old Leelah Alcorn, a transgender teen who committed suicide after forced “conversion therapy,” President Barack Obama called for a nationwide ban on psychotherapy aimed at changing sexual orientation or... more

Following the death of 17-year-old Leelah Alcorn, a transgender teen who committed suicide after forced “conversion therapy,” President Barack Obama called for a nationwide ban on psychotherapy aimed at changing sexual orientation or gender identity. The administration argued that because conversion therapy causes substantial psychological harm to minors, it is neither medically nor ethically appropriate. We fully agree with the President and believe that this is a step in the right direction. Of course, in addition to being unsafe as well as ethically unsound, current conversion therapy approaches aren’t actually effective at doing what they claim to do – changing sexual orientation. But we also worry that this may be a short-term legislative solution to what is really a conceptual problem. The question we ought to be asking is “what will happen if and when scientists do end up developing safe and effective technologies that can alter sexual orientation?”

Objective We examine whether affective, verbal, and restitutive displays of remorse are associated with perceived offender immorality, as well as whether displays of remorse exert indirect effects on preferences for criminal sentencing... more

Objective We examine whether affective, verbal, and restitutive displays of remorse are associated with perceived offender immorality, as well as whether displays of remorse exert indirect effects on preferences for criminal sentencing via perceived offender immorality. Method Data are from an online survey, which included a sentencing vignette with experimental manipulations for offender remorse and items measuring sentencing preferences, perceived offender and offense immorality, and controls (N = 352). OLS regression and bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals were used to estimate direct and indirect effects. Replication analyses were conducted with two student samples (N = 103 and N = 131). Results Displays of remorse were associated with perceived offender immorality. Displays of remorse also exerted indirect effects on preferences for sentencing severity and support for particular sentencing goals (including incapacitation, rehabilitation, and restoration). Conclusions Affective, verbal, and restitutive displays of remorse may be associated with sentencing preferences via perceived offender immorality.

Cet article analyse la façon dont les promoteurs de la discipline "anthropologie juridique", ont, dans la seconde moitié du XXe siècle, fait du rejet de l'ethnocentrisme juridique la pierre angulaire de leur fondation disciplinaire. En... more

Cet article analyse la façon dont les promoteurs de la discipline "anthropologie juridique", ont, dans la seconde moitié du XXe siècle, fait du rejet de l'ethnocentrisme juridique la pierre angulaire de leur fondation disciplinaire. En substituant une nouvelle discipline ("l'anthropologie juridique") à l'ancienne "ethnologie juridique", ils ont déployé des efforts considérables afin d'analyser les droits extra-occidentaux sans recourir aux catégories occidentales (et en particulier romaines) du droit.

Эта книга – очередное издание известного труда историка советской и пост-советской правовой системы, профессора университета Торонто Питера Соломона. Впервые на русском языке эта работа была опубликована в 1998 году, на английском книга... more

Эта книга – очередное издание известного труда историка советской и пост-советской правовой системы, профессора университета Торонто Питера Соломона. Впервые на русском языке эта работа была опубликована в 1998 году, на английском книга вышла в 1996. В середине 1990-х годов исследование Соломона внесло вклад в дискуссию о советском правосудии сталинского периода, участниками которой были Габор Риттершпорн, Йорам Горлицкий, Олег Хлевнюк, Харольд Берман, Юджин Каменка и другие. С тех пор дискуссия на Западе значительно продвинулась, однако далеко не все исследования, посвященные этой проблеме, известны в России. Между тем, в последние годы активно развиваются эмпирические социо-правовые исследования, которые нуждаются в теоретико-
методологической базе. При общем дефиците русскоязычной научной литературы по практике правоприменения, истории и социологии права хотелось бы, чтобы труд Питера Соломона не остался незамеченным.

Published in Vauchez and De Witte (eds), Lawyering Europe – European Law as a Transnational Social Field (Hart Publishing, 2013) 55-72

Romanian constitution-making since 1989 has been of an uneven and recently evermore conflictive kind. In the 1990s, no significant changes to the 1991 Constitution were made, and the role of the Romanian Constitution could be said to be... more

Romanian constitution-making since 1989 has been of an uneven and recently evermore conflictive kind. In the 1990s, no significant changes to the 1991 Constitution were made, and the role of the Romanian Constitution could be said to be less visible in politics. Since the mid-2000s, in contrast, and after the 2003 amendment mostly triggered for reasons of EU accession, the Constitution has become a clear object of political salience and contention. Constitutional conflict is particularly outspoken since the presidential crisis of 2007, and has become outspoken again in the summer of 2012. This has triggered the 2013 attempt to revise the Constitution, not least in order to deal with the question of relations between the president, the parliament, and the government.
Recent turmoil is in a way surprising, since in the early 2000s, Romanian constitutional democracy seemed to get closer to the idea of a Rechtsstaat, the rule of law, and what in general could be called a form of ‘legal constitutionalism’ or ‘new constitutionalism’. Such a legal-constitutionalist order is supposed to enhance stability and legality. But in an apparently contradictory way, constitutional conflict has recently become more prominent, and one aspect seems to be – as has become particularly clear in the summer of 2012 – what I will call here a form of 'legal resentment'. The latter refers to a skeptical view of political forces regarding rigid, legalist constitutions and strong constitutional courts, as well as, in a related way, external interference into domestic constitutional politics.
Key problems in Romania remain a weakly diffused constitutional culture among both politicians and the wider public, a Constitutional Court that seems unable to play the role of guardian and constitutional educator, and the relative absence of a meaningful constitutional debate in the wider public sphere. The constitutional frame seems to fail in inducing in both political and civil society a civic and political orientation towards constitutional values and a robust public debate on the foundations of Romanian democracy. The 2013 turn to constitutional revision, might however include a turn into the right direction and constitute a 'constitutional moment'. This is not least because of the setting up of the inclusive Forum Constitutional, which involves civil society as well as legal experts in the constitutional revision process.
The paper starts with a discussion of constitution-making since 1989. Second, I will briefly analyze the role of the Romanian Constitutional Court in the democratization process, and, third, discuss the recent crisis that directly involved the Court. Fourth, I will look into the current revision process and 'constitutional moment', and fifth, I will discuss the potentially reinvigorating effects of civic engagement in constitutional change.

Local public services affect citizens’ life quality. For this reason, their privatization meets in Italy a strong opposition in public opinion and in the movements and associations which express active citizenship. The results of the... more

Local public services affect citizens’ life quality. For this reason, their privatization meets in Italy a strong opposition in public opinion and in the movements and associations which express active citizenship. The results of the referendums held on 12 and 13 June expressed a clear preference of the majority of citizens towards public management. The Constitutional Court has ruled, in a recent judgment, that that indication was not respected by the Government and Parliament.

Marriage practices in the Islamic Republic of Iran have evolved in the twenty-first century as unfulfilled expectations of emotional intimacy in marriages have caused an increase in divorce rates and the tendency to postpone marriage and... more

Marriage practices in the Islamic Republic of Iran have evolved in the twenty-first century as unfulfilled expectations of emotional intimacy in marriages have caused an increase in divorce rates and the tendency to postpone marriage and engage in unsanctioned sexual relationships. Over the past decade, the emergence of white marriages, or cohabitation, has made some of these unsanctioned relationships more visible. In response, clerics and state actors publicly condemned the practice because it violates Islamic values, and potentially the law, given Iran's hybrid Islamic-civil legal system. Still, some Iranians prefer this conjugal arrangement to sanctioned marriages. While scholars who address the question of gender and sexual politics in post-revolutionary Iran have addressed temporary marriage, Iranian women's mobilization of the law, and the relationship between women, shari'a (Islamic law), and the state in negotiating rights, they have yet to examine white marriage. Through an analysis of narratives from legal experts and practitioners of white marriage in Iran, this article reveals the motives for electing this practice, and the ways in which it is made legally and socially navigable. This article finds that through their everyday practices, white marriage practitioners have sparked a public discussion on the politics of intimacy and have forced state actors, clerics, and law makers to revisit legal and Islamic debates about gender and rights. When situated within official state discourses and implementation of gender laws, this analysis brings to light the power and agency that Iranians have in controlling gender and sexuality norms and discourses.

In this essay, I describe the movement of an affidavit across different sites – from its first manifestation in a legal submission before an appellate court in India, to my own rewriting of the story in theatrical form, to its subsequent... more

In this essay, I describe the movement of an affidavit across different sites – from its first manifestation in a legal submission before an appellate court in India, to my own rewriting of the story in theatrical form, to its subsequent adaptation by a different set of theatre practitioners. Multiple acts of translation take place here, the genre of the affidavit changing to accommodate the shift in each site. The lawyers in the first instance translate life into law; I translate that legal form into a theatrical form; my theatrical form is once again translated into a different kind of theatrical form. My description of these translations takes the form of a story, albeit a fragmented one. I start with a particular understanding of translation, one where I worry about what might be lost when law attempts to capture life. As the story proceeds, I find myself shifting towards thinking about what might be found and made possible in translation, about how these different genres of the affidavit might allow for different visions of law and life to flourish.

Departing from a critical understanding of the relationship between state, law and power, we propose a critical overview of the concept of the state of exception developed by Giorgio Agamben. We emphasise the idea that the principle of... more

Departing from a critical understanding of the relationship between state, law and power, we propose a critical overview of the concept of the state of exception developed by Giorgio Agamben. We emphasise the idea that the principle of legal exceptionality is not as merely used in response to the current crisis in capitalism, but is an enduring and core technique of power used by states to reproduce economic and colonial power relations. Thus, this paper offers three core points of departure from dominant understandings of the state of exception. First, we urge a rupture of the crude opposition between positive law and the state of exception. Second, we argue for a rejection of limited Western concept of (liberal, political) rights. Finally, we argue for an attention to the materiality of power relations, rather than a narrow focus on the power projected by formal institutions of state power.

Efforts at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst illustrate how academic programs such as Legal Studies can form the basis for conflict resolution in the local community as well as on campus. The study of conflict and its resolution... more

Efforts at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst illustrate how academic programs such as Legal Studies can form the basis for conflict resolution in the local community as well as on campus.
The study of conflict and its resolution lies at the core of many disciplines , but perhaps none touches as closely on this subject as legal studies, the liberal arts study of law in society. Legal studies examines the form and structure of authority in society and the conflicts that authority is expected to resolve. Legal studies also examines the role of officially sanctioned authority in exacerbating conflict. Humanistic, liberal arts legal studies differs considerably from its law school counterpart, the professional study of law. While law school builds its curriculum around the needs of a profession, a liberal arts curriculum operates within a broader context: the study of power and conflict within cultural and historical perspectives. As distinct from a pre-law curriculum, legal studies explores legal issues that arise in connection with the design of public policy and the content of public interest research. Legal studies is not limited to the study of adjudication and adversary processes. It takes these as the dominant themes for conflict management in our society and examines their development and relationship to the structure of society. Official systems of dispute resolution are compared with informal systems, such as the family.

Serve o pensamento jurídico como meio para recuperar a imaginação de alternativas institucionais, que minguou na cultura e na política contemporâneas? O movimento dos estudos jurídicos críticos foi a mais importante corrente de ideias... more

Serve o pensamento jurídico como meio para recuperar a imaginação de alternativas institucionais, que minguou na cultura e na política contemporâneas? O movimento dos estudos jurídicos críticos foi a mais importante corrente de ideias progressistas no direito dos últimos 70 anos. Seu maior teórico foi o brasileiro Roberto Mangabeira Unger. Este livro foi escrito como manifesto do movimento e acrescido de novo texto que trata de como pensar, a partir de agora, o direito e as instituições. Valerá no Brasil por uma convocação. Tradução de Lucas Fucci Amato

Pierre Noreau et Samia Amor, « Médiation familiale : de l’expérience sociale à la pratique judiciarisée », dans : Marie-Christine Saint-Jacques, Daniel Turcotte, Sylvie Drapeau, Richard Cloutier, Familles en transformation. La vie après... more

Pierre Noreau et Samia Amor, « Médiation familiale : de l’expérience sociale à la pratique judiciarisée », dans : Marie-Christine Saint-Jacques, Daniel Turcotte, Sylvie Drapeau, Richard Cloutier, Familles en transformation. La vie après la séparation des parents : Bilan d’une réalité complexe et pistes d’action, Québec, Presses de l'Université Laval . 2004, p. 269-297.

This article examines the reaction by the Australian Federal Government to the protest movements of the 1960s–1970s and their attempts to use public order legislation to thwart radical discontent in Australia. It argues that the Public... more

This article examines the reaction by the Australian Federal Government to the protest movements of the 1960s–1970s and their attempts to use public order legislation to thwart radical discontent in Australia. It argues that the Public Order (Protection of Persons and Property) Act 1971 was aimed at the threat of “violent” protests, particularly the tactic of the “sit-in”, and that to this end, the legislation was an overreaction to the actual threat posed by the protest movements at the time. It also shows that after a long gestation period, the Act was ill-equipped to deal with the changing nature of demonstrations in the 1970s, such as the problems caused by the erection of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. Thus, after an initial flurry of use in mid-1971, the law has been seldom used since.

Results of the Repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act

Questo volume raccoglie i risultati di alcune ricerche condotte negli ultimi anni sui fenomeni migratori e sulla loro percezione a livello locale, sia da parte della popolazione residente e degli stessi migranti, sia da parte delle... more

Questo volume raccoglie i risultati di alcune ricerche condotte negli ultimi anni sui fenomeni migratori e sulla loro percezione a livello locale, sia da parte della popolazione residente e degli stessi migranti, sia da parte delle istituzioni, in particolar modo dalla magistratura.
Lo scopo è quello di offrire un contributo alla riflessione sul ruolo del diritto nel governo delle migrazioni internazionali, anche alla luce di alcune derive legate alla centralità che la questione “sicurezza”, nella sua rinnovata declinazione, ha assunto nell’agenda politica a diversi livelli: non solo nazionale e sovranazionale, ma anche locale. Uno dei principali fili rossi che attraversa le ricerche presentate è la considerazione degli effetti che queste derive producono sulla definizione della condizione giuridica e sociale del migrante.

We are living in a time of changing consciousness about the meaning and function of authority. Law, which is often taken to be the backbone of authority structures in society, has come increasingly under scrutiny, both for its role in... more

We are living in a time of changing consciousness about the meaning and function of authority. Law, which is often taken to be the backbone of authority structures in society, has come increasingly under scrutiny, both for its role in maintaining oppressive social conditions and for the exceeding narrowness of legalism as a world view.

Authors: Sylvia Walby (Lancaster University, UK), Philippa Olive (Lancaster University), Jude Towers (Lancaster University), Brian Francis (Lancaster University), Sofia Strid (Örebro University, Sweden), Andrea Krizsán (Central European... more

Authors: Sylvia Walby (Lancaster University, UK), Philippa Olive (Lancaster University), Jude Towers (Lancaster University), Brian Francis (Lancaster University), Sofia Strid (Örebro University, Sweden), Andrea Krizsán (Central European University, Budapest, Hungary), Emanuela Lombardo (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain), Corinne May-Chahal (Lancaster University), Suzanne Franzway (University of South Australia), David Sugarman (Lancaster University), Bina Agarwal (University of Delhi and University of Manchester). (Brussels: The European Parliament). pp.212. ISBN: 978-92-823-4865-9

This chapter makes a close reading of a short vignette in Eyrbyggja saga - the attempted forced marriage between the Swedish berserk Halli and Víga-Styrr's daughter Ásdis - exploring the ways that various norms and normative expectations... more

This chapter makes a close reading of a short vignette in Eyrbyggja saga - the attempted forced marriage between the Swedish berserk Halli and Víga-Styrr's daughter Ásdis - exploring the ways that various norms and normative expectations are deliberately manipulated by the characters in question to further their own social goals in the narrative.