For example, we might take a look at the posted velocity limits on most US highways and conclude that the “correct” or “right” pace is not more than fifty-5 miles per hour. Or we could look a little deeper and find out how the written legislation is normally utilized. Doing so, we’d conclude that sixty-one miles per hour is generally allowed by most state troopers, however that often somebody will get ticketed for doing fifty-seven miles per hour in a fifty-5 miles per hour zone. The first strategy, inspecting in a precise way what the rule itself says, is usually often known as the “positivist” college of legal thought. The second strategy—which relies on social context and the precise behavior of the principal actors who implement the law—is akin to the “legal realist” college of thought (see Section 1.2.3 “Other Schools of Legal Thought”).
