Alcohol norms and their enforcement: an assessment from a socio-legal perspective

The socio-legal perspective on the alcohol legislation, including the norms concerned with the relationship between individuals and alcoholic drinks, help answering some essentials questions: - what was/is the 'social construction' of the alcohol problem in different eras and different cultures and, consequently, which objectives are deemed to be worthy of pursuit through the creation or amendment of legislation? - which social actors have the ability, in a given period of time, to inscribe the relevance of innovative alcohol legislation on the political agenda and what kind of dialectic is used among those who champion points of view, competences and above all, different interests? - which interests and values would appear to meet with legislatory protection time after time? - what tools, of the ample range available, are chosen to achieve the aims set out? - to what extent is legislation implemented (or not implemented), and why? which aspects of the implementation process prove to be most significant, i.e. define the actual content of the legislation 'in force', and are therefore tangibly experienced by the law's end target? - how much of an impact does legislation have on behavior which is subject to regulation or on problems which stem from such behavior?