Chapter One
"Introduction: The Social Production of Legal Knowledge"
The introductory chapter outlines the basic puzzles, propositions, and premises developed in the book. It begins by reviewing a well-known popular narrative -- about a “cat-scanned psychic” who won a $1 million jury award – in order to pose a series of questions regarding how common sense about civil law is generated and maintained. The chapter outlines a general conceptual framework for analyzing how ideological norms, institutional routines and standards, and instrumental strategies have converged to shape law, politics, and power in the contemporary United States by shaping what people know or believe that they know.