ABSTRACT
In the famous article on the basic design of legal rules, Calabresi and Melamed refer to Monet’s cycle of paintings of the Cathedral of Rouen.2 The circumspection of a monumental object in the turn of the sunlight displays the whole cosmos of forms and colours. For the equally famous 18 haystacks, Monet is quoted to have intended ‘to fix a genuine impression of a certain aspect of nature’. The ‘nature’ of the relation of law and the associated extra-legal norms such as standards or codified practices is rather vague. An exploration by circumspection may be an adequate approach in this matter.
