sociology of law essay

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Sociology of Law

Introduction, general overviews.

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Sociology of Law by Mathieu Deflem LAST REVIEWED: 29 June 2015 LAST MODIFIED: 29 June 2015 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756384-0056

The sociology of law refers to the sociological study of law and law-related phenomena, whereby law is typically conceived as the whole of legal norms in society as well as the practices and institutions that are associated with those norms. Dating back to the classic works by Emile Durkheim and Max Weber, the sociology of law has partly also evolved in conjunction with intellectual efforts within legal scholarship, where a specialty of sociological jurisprudence developed. The sociology of law was for some time primarily part of the multidisciplinary field of law-and-society studies or the law and society movement, but it has in more recent years grown into a relatively autonomous branch of theory and research in sociology. It is from within the theoretical and methodological contours of the sociological discipline that the sociology of law derives its unique approach and value as a contribution to the social-scientific study of law. The number, quality, and variety of available writings in and about the sociology of law reflect its scholarly and institutional growth as a respected sociological specialty.

The tension between the sociology of law as a specialty in the broader discipline of sociology, on the one hand, and as one approach among others in the law-and-society field, on the other hand, is sharply reflected in the general works that are available about the subject matter. Some works on the sociology of law do not distinctly deal with the sociological study of law but instead provide overviews of the multidisciplinary field of law and society or they treat the sociology of law in more general terms (as a social science) or, in very few cases, even as an approach in legal scholarship. Fortunately, some works provide overviews of the sociology of law as a sociological field of specialization in relation to long-standing themes and perspectives in the discipline at large. Deflem 2008 and Tomasic 1985 provide sociological overviews, as do Arnaud 1981 and Gephart 1993 in non-English works. Calavita 2010 provides no specific disciplinary grounding, while Cotterrell 1992 offers a work in jurisprudence.

Arnaud, André-Jean. 1981. Critique de la raison juridique: 1. Où va la sociologie du droit? Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

Analysis of the intellectual development of the sociology of law, with special attention to the broadening of research areas, especially in European sociology.

Calavita, Kitty. 2010. Invitation to law & society: An introduction to the study of real law . Chicago Series in Law and Society. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226089980.001.0001

Provides an overview of various themes in law-and-society studies based on the author’s teaching experience. Written by a sociologist, but lacking in disciplinary focus.

Cotterrell, Roger. 1992. The sociology of law: An introduction . 2d ed. London: Butterworths.

While providing good summaries of various theoretical ideas in the sociology of law, this book conceives of it as an approach in legal scholarship, not in sociology.

Deflem, Mathieu. 2008. Sociology of law: Visions of a scholarly tradition . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.

DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511815546

Provides an overview of the scholarly and professional development of the sociology of law as a disciplinary specialty, with particular attention to its theoretical foundations and the increasing variation in empirical research themes.

Gephart, Werner. 1993. Gesellschaftstheorie und Recht: Das Recht im soziologischen Diskurs der Moderne . Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.

Excellent discussion of major theoretical issues in the sociology of law. Written in German, this book also shows the sharper development of such questions in some non-English-speaking countries.

Tomasic, Roman. 1985. The sociology of law . London: SAGE.

Provides a general overview of the sociology of law as well as an illustration of some of its usefulness with reference to a number of empirical subject matters.

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• [185.66.14.236]
• 185.66.14.236

• DOI: 10.1080/07329113.2017.1340057
• Corpus ID: 148814094

What is sociology of law? (On law, rules, social control and sociology)

• J. Griffiths
• Published 4 May 2017
• Sociology, Law
• The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law

13 Citations

The role of legal sociology in terms of covid-19: large-scale social restrictions (psbb) in indonesia, legal pluralism, social theory, and the state, social change and law: a matter for discussion. study of the first decision in favor of same-sex couples by the constitutional court of colombia, contemporary legal pluralism, the modern metropole, and immigrant integration: negotiating the law and legal institutions in immigrant contexts, societal constitutionalism in japan: neighbourhood associations as micro-relational constitutional sites, special weapons and tactics teams in canadian policing: legal, institutional, and economic dimensions, scientific questions of fact between free evaluation of evidence and proof beyond any reasonable doubt in the criminal trial, towards sustainable property exploring the entanglement of ownership and sustainability, peran sociological jurisprudence dalam menciptakan keefektivitasan hukum melalui living law, the impact of courtroom demeanour and non-verbal communication on the verdict, 175 references, fundamental principles of the sociology of law.

• Highly Influential

Law in brief encounters

A general jurisprudence of law and society, the behavior of law, the differing realms of the law, natural law, law and social change: the semi-autonomous social field as an appropriate subject of study, ihe study of law in society in britain, legal evolution: the story of an idea, rules and processes: the cultural logic of dispute in an african context, related papers.

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4 The Idea of Sociology of Law and its Relation to Law and to Sociology

• Published: March 2006
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This chapter states that it is ‘social control’, and not ‘law’ that is the proper subject of sociology of law. It starts by presenting a seemingly simple question: ‘What is sociology of law?’ The expression ‘sociological study of law’ consists of two concepts: ‘sociology’ and ‘law’. It also addresses the ‘problem of social order’: how is human social behaviour possible? It is stated that sociology of law is the empirical social science whose object is social control . It is also noted that social control must be investigated both as a dependent and as an independent variable. The association between rules and their influences is a difficult and reciprocal one that should form the heart of theory-formation in sociology of law. A discussion on the position of sociology of law in relation to sociology, and the connection of sociology of law to legal scholarship is provided.

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Sociology of Law

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Sociology of Law (7511): This course explores major issues and debates in the sociology of law. Topics include historical perspectives on the origins of law; rationality and legal sanctions; normative decision making and morality; cognitive decision making; crime and deviance, with particular attention to the problem of mass incarceration; the "law in action" versus the "law on the books;" organizational responses to law, particularly in the context of sexual harassment and discrimination in education and employment; the roles of lawyers, judges, and juries; and law and social change with particular emphasis on the American civil rights movement. Special Instructions: Students are expected to attend a weekly TA-led discussion section in addition to lecture. Sections will be scheduled after the start of term at times when all students can attend. Paper requirements are flexible. Cross listed with the Sociology Department (Soc 136/236). See "Special Instructions" in course description above. Elements Used in Grading: Class participation, paper proposal, three short papers and a final paper (see syllabus for details).

Sociology of Law | LAW 7511 Section 01 Class #1154

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• > Law's Social Forms: A Powerless Approach to the Sociology...

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Law's social forms: a powerless approach to the sociology of law.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Since the law and society movement in the 1960s, the sociology of law in the United States has been dominated by a power/inequality approach. Based on a sociological distinction between the forms and substances of law, this article outlines a “powerless” approach to the sociology of law as a theoretical alternative to the mainstream power/inequality approach. Following Simmel and the Chicago School of sociology, this new approach analyzes the legal system not by its power relations and patterns of inequality, but by its social forms, or the structures and processes that constitute the legal system's spatial outlook and temporality. Taking a radical stance on power, this article is not only a retrospective call for social theory in law and society research, but also a progressive effort to move beyond US‐centric sociolegal scholarship and to develop new social science tools that explain a larger variety of legal phenomena across the world.

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• Volume 40, Issue 1
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/lsi.12105

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Duncan Kennedy

Topics Critical Legal Studies Legal Education Legal Theory Law & Economics Contract Law Housing Law Legal History Sociology of Law Political Commentary Other Languages Teaching Materials

Sociology of Law

Introduction

Essays on the sociology of law.

The sociology of law has different meanings in different places and traditions. In this list of essays, I tried to include everything I have written about the social, economic, political, psychological and “ideal” (or normative) factors that influence the content of positive law in modern systems (a very Kelsenian definition). Because the list is so long, here are some pointers. The essays fall into five categories.

First, I’ve attempted comprehensive sociological treatments of several aspects of law. In Chapters 3, 9, 10 and 11 of A Critique of Adjudication , I present a fairly complete sociology of law with the goal of placing the institution of adjudication in the sociological context of modern Unitedstatesean electoral politics. In Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy , I tried to give a comprehensive sociological account of how the institution of legal education operates as a reflection and also as a cause of hierarchy in the bar and in society in general. In “Sexual Abuse, Sexy Dressing and the Eroticization of Domination,” the goal was to analyze the legal regulation of sexuality using a combination of the economic analysis of law and critical theory (including the varieties of feminist legal theory).

Second, in a number of essays, I’ve tried to add, to the standard categories of sociological analysis of law, the two elements of a focus on the background rules of private law that condition all aspects of life in modern societies, and the semiotic analysis of legal discourse. The best summaries of these positions are in “The Stakes of Law, or Hale and Foucault!” and “A Semiotics of Legal Argument” (in the extended version, with a “European Introduction”). The semiotic approach from a number of different articles is synthesized, I hope, in Chapters 6, 7 and 8 of A Critique of Adjudication , with, in Chapter 8, an attempt to integrate the sociological element with the psychological approaches of Sartre and Freud. To my mind, the most philosophically sophisticated version of the position that I have managed to produce is “Freedom and Constraint in Adjudication: A Critical Phenomenology.” If you are interested in this aspect, you might want to consult the “Legal Theory” topic page.

Third, I’ve attempted to contrast the above approach to the sociology of law to the approaches of Marx (“The Role of Law in Economic Thought: Essays on the Fetishism of Commodities”), Weber (“The Disenchantment of Logically Formal Legal Rationality, or Max Weber’s Sociology in the Genealogy of the Contemporary Mode of Western Legal Thought”) and Foucault (“The Stakes of Law, or Hale and Foucault!” already mentioned).

Fourth, I’ve included in the list various essays that critique today’s mainstream law and economics literature, and that attempt to develop an alternative approach that puts the central emphasis on the distributive consequences of legal rules, and particularly on the consequences for “weak parties.” In these essays, I’ve tried to deploy a more complex, though perfectly conventional, variety of economic ideas, including, for example, the idea of unstable equilibrium in low income housing markets, to destabilize some of the conservative biases of the mainstream. If this is your primary interest, I suggest referring to the “Law and Economics” topic page.

Fifth, I’ve been developing a general theory of the globalization of law and legal thought in the period since 1850. One part of this is the mapping of the spread of different European legal ideas across the world (“Two Globalizations of Law and Legal Thought: 1850-1968”). Another part is an attempt to radically revise the standard treatment of twentieth century legal thought by foregrounding what I call “the social,” and treating legal realism as a critique of “the social,” presaging the contemporary mode of “conflicting considerations” legal consciousness (“From the Will Theory to the Principle of Private Autonomy: Lon Fuller’s Consideration and Form,” “François Gény aux États Unis” with Marie-Claire Belleau, “The Disenchantment of Logically Formal Legal Rationality, or Max Weber’s Sociology in the Genealogy of the Contemporary Mode of Western Legal Thought,” and “Legal Formalism”). Readers interested in this topic might want to consult the Legal History topic as well.

• A Long History of Industrial Policy ( Part 1 ) ( Part 2 ) ( Part 3 ): Heterodox Approaches, Matters (2023)
• A Social Psychological Interpretation of the Hermeneutic of Suspicion in Contemporary American Legal Thought , in Justin Desautels-Stein and Christopher Tomlins, Searching for Contemporary Legal Thought (Cambridge University Press, 2017)
• A Left of Liberal Interpretation of Trump’s “Big” Win, Part One: Neoliberalism , 1 Nev. L.J. Forum 98 (2017)
• Property as Fetish and Tool, Duncan Kennedy on Property, the Commons, and the Law , Grassroots Economic Organizing, May 17, 2017
• Teaching Israel/Palestine Legal Issues at Harvard: Interview with Duncan Kennedy , by Whosam El-Coolaq, 10 Unbound 36 (2015)
• The Globalisation of Critical Discourses on Law: Thoughts on David Trubek’s Contribution , in Grainne de Burca, Claire Kilpatrick and Joanne Scott, eds., Critical Legal Perspectives on Global Governance: Liber Amicorum David M. Trubek (Hart Publishing, 2014)
• The Hermeneutic of Suspicion in Contemporary American Legal Thought , 25 Law and Critique 91 (2014)
• Political Ideology and Comparative Law , in Mauro Bussani and Ugo Mattei, The Cambridge Companion to Comparative Law (Cambridge University Press 2012)
• African Poverty , 87 Wash. L. Rev. 205 (2012)
• Éloge de Duncan Kennedy, par Christophe Jamin, et Réponse de Duncan Kennedy , in Remise d’un doctorat honoris causa à Duncan Kennedy, Petites Affiches, La Loi, Le Quotidien Juridique (Lextenso éditions, 27 décembre 2011)
• Savigny’s Family/Patrimony Distinction and its Place in the Global Genealogy of Classical Legal Thought , 58 Am. J. Comp. L. 811 (2010)
• Interview with Duncan Kennedy, Harvard Law School, Cambridge MA (USA), May 2008 (by Mauro Zamboni), 32 REFTÆRD Årgång, no. 2/125 (2009)
• Entretien avec Duncan Kennedy, par Mikhail Xifaras, as the introduction to Sexy Dressing, Violences sexuelles et érotisation de la domination (Paris: Flammarion, 2008), the French translation of the article Sexual Abuse, Sexy Dressing and the Eroticization of Domination, 26 New England L. Rev. 1309 (1992)
• Teaching from the Left in My Anecdotage , 31 NYU Review of Law and Social Change 449 (2007)
• Thirty Years Later , a preface to the published manuscript The Rise & Fall of Classical Legal Thought (Beard Books, Washington DC, 2006)
• Introduction and Afterword to the republication of Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy, A Polemic Against the System, A Critical Edition (NYU Press, Critical America, 2004)
• Introduction to Symposium on Dismantling Hierarches in Legal Education , 73 UMKC L. Rev. 231 (2004)
• Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy: A Polemic Against the System (AFAR 1983) [also published in updated book version as Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy: A Polemic Against the System, A Critical Edition, with contributions from Paul Harrington, Peter Gabel [ weblink ], Angela Harris, Donna Maeda and Janet Halley, and with a new introduction and afterword by the author (NYU Press, Critical America 2004)]
• The Disenchantment of Logically Formal Legal Rationality, or Max Weber’s Sociology in the Genealogy of the Contemporary Mode of Western Legal Thought , 55 Hastings L. J. 1031 (2004)
• Earlier version: Two Globalizations of Law and Legal Thought: 1850-1968, 36 Suffolk Univ. L. Rev. 631 (2003)
• The Critique of Rights in Critical Legal Studies , in Brown and Halley, eds., Left Legalism/Left Critique (Duke University Press 2002)
• Legal Economics of U.S. Low Income Housing Markets in Light of “Informality” Analysis , 4 J. Law in Society 71 (2002)
• Legal Formalism , The International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences 8634 (2001)
• Italian translation: La Funzione Ideologica del Tecnicismo nel Diritto dei Contratti , 20 Rivista Critica del Diritto Privato 317 (2002)
• François Gény aux États-Unis , in Francois Gény, Mythe et Realités 1899-1999 Centenaire de Methode d’Interpretation et Sources en Droit Privé Positif, Essai Critique (Claude Thomasset, Jacques Vanderlinden & Philippe Jestaz, eds., Editions Yvon Blais, Montreal, 2000), with Marie Claire Belleau
• From the Will Theory to the Principle of Private Autonomy: Ion Fuller’s Consideration and Form , 100 Colum. L. Rev. 94 (2000)
• Law and Economics from the Perspective of Critical Legal Studies , 2 The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics and the Law 465 (P. Newman, ed., Macmillan, New York, 1998)
• Chapter four was reprinted as: The Paradox of American Critical Legalism , 3 European Law J. 359 (1997)
• Chapter eight was reprinted as: Strategizing Strategic Behavior in Legal Interpretation , 1996 Utah L. Rev. 785
• Italian translation of chapter two: La Distinzione tra Giudice e Legislatore , 15 Rivista Critica di Diritto Privato 383 (1997)
• Of chapter four with a brief foreword: Il Pensiero Giuridico Post-testualista: il Caso degli Stati Uniti , 2 Ars Interpretandi: Annuario di Ermeneutica Giuridica 197 (1997)
• Of chapter eight: Comportamenti Strategici nell’interpretazione del Diritto , in J. Derrida & G. Vattimo, eds., Diritto, giustizia e interpretazione (Laterza, Rome, 1998)
• German translation of parts of chapters nine & ten: Konsequenzen der Richterlichen Entscheidung , in G. Teubner, ed., Entscheidungsfolgen als Rechtsgrunde (Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden, 1995)
• A condensed version of chapters 12 and 13 appeared as: The Critique of Rights in Critical Legal Studies , in Brown and Halley, eds., Left Legalism/Left Critique (Duke University Press 2002)
• American Constitutionalism as Civil Religion: Notes of an Atheist , 19 Nova L. Rev. 909 (1995)
• Limited Equity Housing Cooperatives as a Mode of Privatization , in G. Alexander & G. Skapska, eds., A Fourth Way? Privatization, Property, and the Emergence of New Market Economies (Routledge, 1994), with Leopold Specht
• Neither the Market nor the State: Housing Privatization Issues , in G. Alexander & G. Skapska, eds., A Fourth Way? Privatization, Property, and the Emergence of New Market Economies (Routledge, 1994)
• Greek translation: Ντάνκαν Κέννεντυ, Σέξυ ντύσιμο και άλλα, Δοκίμια για την εξουσία και την πολιτική της πολιτιστικής ταυτότητας, (Εκδόσεις ΔΡΟΜΕΑΣ, Αθήνα 2000)
• Avant-propos and interview preceding translation of this article as a book under the title Sexy Dressing, Violences sexuelles et érotisation de la domination (Paris: Flammarion, 2008)
• The Stakes of Law, or Hale and Foucault! , 15 Legal Studies Forum 327 (1991) [also in Sexy Dressing, Etc. ]
• A Cultural Pluralist Case for Affirmative Action in Legal Academia , 1990 Duke L.J . 706 [also in Sexy Dressing, Etc.]
• The Liberal Administrative Style , 41 Syracuse L. Rev. 801 (1990)
• Italian translation of shorter version: Giuristi Radicali, Intelletuali e Stato nella Cultura Americana ovvero il mio Discorso per l’istituto Gramsci , 7 Rivista Critica del Diritto Privato 29 (Naples, 1989)
• Partial Spanish translation: ¿Son los abogados realmente necesarios?, Axel O. Eljatib, trans., in Desde Otra Mirada: Textos de Teoría Crítica del Derecho (Eudeba 2001)
• Shorter version: Toward a Critical Phenomenology of Judging, in A. Hutchinson P. Monahan, eds., The Rule of Law: Ideal or Ideology? (Carswell 1987)
• Freedom & Constraint in Adjudication: A Critical Phenomenology , reprinted in J. Boyle, ed., Critical Legal Studies (Dartmouth 1992)
• Spanish translation: Libertad y Restricción en la Decisión Judicial. El debate con la Teoría Crítica del Derecho (CLS), Diego Eduardo López, trans., Siglo del Hombre Editores, Bogotá, Colombia, 1999; con un Estudio Preliminar de César Rodríguez
• Psycho-social CLS: A Comment on the Cardozo Symposium, Cardozo L. Rev. 1013 (1985)
• The Role of Law in Economic Thought: Essays on the Fetishism of Commodities , 34 Amer. Univ. L. Rev. 939 (1985)
• Roll Over Beethoven, 36 Stan. L. Rev. 1 (1984) (with Peter Gabel)
• Shorter version: Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy , 32 J. Leg. Ed. 591 (1982)
• Shorter version: Legal Education as Training for Hierarchy , in D. Kairys, ed. The Politics of Law (1982, 2nd ed. 1990, 3d ed. 1998)
• French translation: L’enseignement du Droit et la Reproduction des Hierarchies Professionelles , Annales de Vaucresson, deuxième semestre 1985, no. 23, p. 191
• Spanish translation: La educación legal como preparación para la jerarquía , María Luisa Piqué y Christian Courtis, trans., in Desde Otra Mirada: Textos de Teoría Crítica del Derecho (Eudeba 2001); also published as La educación legal como preparación para la jerarquía , Academia, Revista sobre Enseñanza del Derecho de Buenos Aires, Año 2, no. 3, Otoño 2004 [translation of Legal Education as a Training for Hierarchy, in D. Kairys, ed., The Politics of Law (New York, Pantheon, 1990)]
• The Political Significance of the Structure of the Law School Curriculum , 14 Seton Hall L. Rev . 1 (1983)
• Antonio Gramsci and the Legal System , 6 ALSA Forum, No. 1, p. 32 (1982)
• Distributive and Paternalist Motives in Contract and Tort Law, with Special Reference to Compulsory Terms and Unequal Bargaining Power , 41 Maryland L. Rev. 563 (1982)
• The Stages of the Decline of the Public/Private Distinction , 130 U. Pa. L. Rev . 1349 (1982)
• Legal Education as Training for Hierarchy , in D. Kairys, ed. The Politics of Law (1982, 2nd ed. 1990, 3d ed. 1998)
• Cost-Reduction Theory as Legitimation , 90 Yale L. J. 1275 (1981)
• Critical Labor Law Theory: A Comment , 4 Industrial Relations L.J. 503 (1981)
• Are Property and Contract Efficient? 8 Hofstra L. Rev. 711 (1980), with Frank Michelman
• Toward an Historical Understanding of Legal Consciousness: The Case of Classical Legal Thought in America, 1850-1940 , 3 Research in Law & Soc. , Spitzer, Ed. (1980)
• Partially reprinted in Critical Legal Studies (A. Hutchinson, ed., Rowman & Littlefield, Toronto, 1989)
• Italian translation: Forma e Sostanza nella Giurisdizione di Diritto Privato (A. Carrino, trans., Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, Naples, 1992)
• Partial Spanish translation: Forma y Sustancia en la Adjudicación de Derecho Privado , in Sociología Jurídica, Teoría y Sociología del Derecho en Estados Unidos (M. Villegas, ed., Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Facultad de Derecho, Bogotá, 2001)

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Max Weber’s Sociology of Law

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• Alan Hunt  

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Max Weber occupies a central position in the development of sociology. His significance is not merely historical; he remains an ever-present force in contemporary sociology and in this respect he is to be differentiated from Durkheim whose historical importance is widely recognised but is less and less a point of reference in current discussions. Weber’s presence insinuates itself into nearly every important debate and controversy within sociology. For this reason I want to argue that Weber is in a very real sense still alive. The questions that he poses remain the central subject matter not only of modern sociology, but also more widely of contemporary social and political thought. This prominence is reflected in the sustained treatment of Weberian sociology that occurs in contemporary sociology and social theory from widely divergent positions. 1

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Hunt, A. (1978). Max Weber’s Sociology of Law. In: The Sociological Movement in Law. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-15918-5_5

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The Sociology of Law

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The purpose of this book is to introduce the sociology of law by providing a coherent organization to the general body of literature in that field. As such, the text gives a comprehensive overview of theoretical sociology of law. It deals with the broad expanse of the field and covers a vast amount of intellectual terrain. This volume is intended to fill a gap in the literature. Most textbooks in the sociology of law are insufficiently theoretical or else do not provide a paradigmatic analysis of sociological theories.

The content of this text consists of discussions of the works of scholars who have contributed the most to the cumulative development of the sociology of law. It surveys the major traditions of legal sociology but is not wedded to any one particular theoretical approach. Both the "classical," or nineteenth-century, and "contemporary," or twentieth-century, perspectives are covered. The reader will see that nineteenth-century thought has directly influenced the emergence of twentieth-century theory.

One unique feature of this book is that key sociological and legal concepts, presented in bold print and italics, are defined, described, and illustrated throughout. Although the nature of the subject matter is highly theoretical and, at times, quite complex, Trevino values every effort to present the material in the most straightforward and intelligible form possible without compromising the integrity of the theories themselves. In short, this book aims to accomplish three objectives: inform about the progressive advancement of sociological theory, teach the reader to analyze the law as a social phenomenon, and develop in the reader a critical mode of thinking about issues relevant to the relationship between law and society.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1 | 12  pages, chapter 2 | 23  pages, foundational works on law and society, chapter | 8  pages, ancient law, chapter | 6  pages, chapter | 5  pages, folkways and mores, chapter 3 | 21  pages, the sociological movement in law, chapter | 4  pages, the path of the law, chapter | 9  pages, a survey of social interests, some realism about realism— responding to dean pound, chapter 4 | 35  pages, the marxian perspective, chapter | 12  pages, debates on the law on thefts of wood 1, commodity form and legal form: an essay on the “relative autonomy” of the law, chapter | 13  pages, the place of law in the marxian structure-superstructure archetype, chapter 1635 | 43  pages, the weberian perspective, chapter | 3  pages, categories of legal thought, chapter | 11  pages, the concept of legitimation in the sociology of law, max weber on law and the rise of capitalism, chapter 6 | 42  pages, the durkheimian perspective, the evolution of punishment, law and durkheimian order: an empirical examination of the convergence of legal and social definitions of law, punishment and social organization: a study of durkheim’s theory of penal evolution, chapter 7 | 23  pages, structural-functionalism, the law and social control, chapter | 10  pages, three levels of the functioning of law, chapter 8 | 24  pages, conflict theory, a sociological analysis of the law of vagrancy, law as a weapon in social conflict, chapter 9 | 24  pages, critical legal studies, form and substance in private law adjudication, chapter | 14  pages, an essay in the deconstraction of contract doctrine, chapter 10 | 8  pages, sociology of law at century’s end.

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Relationship between Sociology and Law

Sociology and Law are two interwoven topics. Society is directly related to sociology, and in this matter, every society follows certain laws. Therefore, laws are an essential part of society. Sociology helps law to better understand society for smoother regulation and formation of laws. Similarly, the law is important to regulate society. Norms, customs, traditions all come under the law if the law did not exist then the society would not be less than a jungle. A human needs certain rules and regulations to keep them on track and hence laws were made. These laws are made and established by society itself or governments are elected to formulate laws. From the formation to the execution till its impact on society everything comes under the umbrella of Sociology.

In Sociology , we would say that law is a Social Control over Society. To have a harmonious society one needs to build laws. Social control is basically a component utilized by the administration to manage the activities of all people inside any general public, with the law being an immaculate illustration. When something is said orally, people often ignore it or dismiss it. So now people have to build a judicial system and law enforcement agencies. When something goes wrong, these agencies look into that issue, and people keep in mind the consequences they can face if they go against the law and act as an example for others. This is also related to Politics but it is also as important for sociology. The different institutions may likewise be utilized as types of social control, for example, the training framework, i.e. Schools and colleges, religion or media, depending upon how and to what degree they are utilized. For example, every one of them has the ability to show individuals an arrangement of good standards and principles, which is likewise a type of social control.

The law is a societal phenomenon. Often law and sociology are seen as two different trains or domains and different groups of information. However, law and Sociology has similar subject matters such as both evolve around social relationships, principles, social controls, commitments, and desires coming from specific social status and connections between or among people and society. Anything happening in the social lives of people liable to lawful control and legal explanations does have likenesses with the social hypothesis and frequently read like the social hypothesis.

Often laws get neglected due to developments in society. So, as the social changes occur there must be changes in the law. Just like modern Sociology of law after the Second World War sociology of law became the field of learning and factual study but a law was not central but some well-known sociologists wrote about a law in society. Sociologist Talcott Parsons in his work stated that law is the essential part of social control. Later, critical sociologists evolved with an idea that law is a weapon of power. Further sociologist Philip Selznick contended that modern law has become receptive to the general public’s needs instead it should be drawn ethically as well. German Sociologist Niklas Luhmann shares that Law is a functional system of society therefore he states

“All collective human life is directly or indirectly shaped by law. Law is like knowledge, an essential and all-pervasive fact of the social condition.”

Hence, in simple words, the law is an essential element of society, and society works smoothly with the law. Both go hand in hand. One needs to understand society’s different elements for better law formation and enforcement, and the same goes for society. To have a peaceful and well-structured society, laws should be followed.

Also Read: Sociology of Law