ABSTRACT
Economic theory explains human behavior by considering how individuals react to incentives and constraints in various institutional settings, and the following examination will emphasize institutions and incentives which influence legal evolution. In the case of primitive societies, the earliest kinship groups probably proved to be an effective social arrangement for internalizing reciprocal benefits from legal, religious and external protection arrangements relative to previously existing arrangements. Social institutions such as customary law develop the way they do because, perhaps through a process of trial and error, it is found that the actions they are intended to coordinate are performed more effectively under one system or process than under another. The Kapauku Papuans "process of law" appears to have been highly standardized almost to the point of ritual. It typically started with a loud quarrel where the plaintiff accused the defendant of committing some harmful act while the defendant responded with denials or justification.
