Although he draws on a diverse array of empirical studies, the author's own personal observations and analysis of social situations make up the central methodology of the book. Reisman is an artist at exploring the patterns Page 153 begins here of microlaw at work in, say, the difference between a glance and a stare and the role of a glare as one of the sanctions that may occur when microlaw is broken. These are all, Reisman argues, examples from a vast and important arena of law. It is a law that originates not in the legislature or courthouse but from within the private spheres that liberal political regimes maintain and protect. The law of the state may be important, but law, REAL law, is found in all human relations, from the simplest, briefest encounter between two people to the most inclusive and permanent type of interaction.
Law is a property of interaction.
Now, I have a hard time disagreeing with the idea that it would be good for us all to live up to, if not beyond, the ideals of international human rights law. However, within the parameters set by this work and its celebration of the unregulated realm of microlaw, readers may be left asking for more clarification of the arguments through which Reisman comes to support the regulation of this realm by international standards and, presumably, institutions. One can raise some other questions about the text, questions which may be as much because a political scientist is reading a law professor's work than because of any intrinsic flaws. The center of the book is made up of previously published essays that have been worked on over some two decades. Because of this, readers will find that the lion's share of citations and references on research coming from the fields of sociology, psychology and anthropology are between twenty and thirty years past.