Abstract

The paper presents some observations on the role of tacit dimension in the formation and transmission of legal rules by analyzing the concept of legal tradition in a systemic perspective and linking it to the concept of legal culture. It provides an understanding of the cognitive content of legal rules that allows to consider rules as knowledge units, which may be tacit or explicit in any given legal tradition. The paper also considers the important role that is played by tacit rules, ideas, and attitudes, in determining which new rules can be accommodated in a legal tradition and transmitted to subsequent generations, and argues that legal traditions may be studied as complex cognitive systems that evolve through the interaction of tacit and explicit elements.