Rule, standard, law

The contributions in this volume emerged from the interdisciplinary conference "What Are Rules and What Do They Achieve?" which took place in the fall of 2009 at the Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg Greifswald. The aim of the conference was to clarify the terms rule, norm, and law, as well as related concepts, and to gain an overview of the different roles and functions of these terms across various scientific disciplines. The diverse perspectives of the participating disciplines on the topic of "rules" - including philosophy, psychology, sociology, science theory, decision research, legal studies, social sciences, linguistics, and musicology (with insights from a renowned game designer) - can help overcome traditionally entrenched biases within the disciplines through mutual correction and inspiration. As it turns out, interdisciplinarity is appropriate for the topic: no single discipline can alone master the variety of different types of rules and rule functions.