法律是否重要——来自华南的一个民间收债案例

Is law important?It depends on one’s conception of law and on what one considers important.Based on a field study of an informal debt\|collection practice, the article describes a dispute settlement without court. The informal mechanism is consonant with economic theory, and is so effective, in short, the debtors are inclined to choose cooperation when the creditors take self\|help remedies, and it results in order without law. As for the informal debt\|collection I surveyed, state and society come to a tacit conspiracy, and the state tolerates the existence of self\|help to a “proper extent”, which is a kind of the art of government that public power attains social control through private individuals’ actions have a greater impact on behavior than the law does.