When it is structurally difficult to tell agents how to behave or exercise their discretion properly, and even more formidable to specify the desired outcomes of their efforts, norms that procedurally constrain the agency process provide an alternative. The relationship between these general norms and the unique contractual norms that ideally control a given agency relationship is somewhat akin to that between procedural law and substantive law or secondary rules and primary ones (Hart 1961).

DEFINE: Clarifies how procedural norms function as an alternative when outcome specification is impractical, drawing an analogy to Hart's secondary vs. primary rules.

Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Imper…, loc. 62