Abstract

This paper attempts to show that the story of English duel is the story of a behavior (to be distinguished from its practitioners) largely outside the reach of laws designed to combat it. After numerous deaths on the field; the passage of numerous laws; numerous trials, hangings, imprisonings, brandings, banishments, shamings, and other punishments; and after numerous social campaigns to change the norms underlying the duel, the duel remained. It was only incremental, although fundamental, changes in society - unpredictable, unplanned, and unrelated to dueling - such as a growing middle class, a shrinking aristocracy, and a more democratic political system, which brought about the duel’s demise. In this story of dueling lies the moral that although - as law and social norm scholars would predict - law and other forms of government action play a large role in forming the context within which norms emerge, evolve, and exit, using the tools of government to specifically target a norm can be ineffective and, in some cases, counterproductive when the norm is of a self-reinforcing, or “sticky,” nature.