From Phenotype to Law as Extended Phenotype: An Intellectual Archaeology of Evolutionary Legal Theory and the Reconstruction of a Research Programme

This conceptual and genealogical preprint reconstructs the intellectual antecedents of the Extended Phenotype Theory of Law (EPT). It distinguishes the broader tradition that treats law as an evolutionary phenomenon from EPT's specific Dawkins-inspired claim that laws are extended phenotypes of legal memes. The article examines Holmes, evolutionary law and economics, Simon Deakin, Oliver R. Goodenough, and the Goodenough-Dawkins analysis of chain letters as mind viruses. It proposes a layered causal sequence linking legal-meme variants, human carriers, law as immediate extended phenotype, mediated institutional effects, environmental modification, and feedback upon future transmission. The paper presents EPT's contribution as a candidate architectural differential rather than a claim that each component is unprecedented.