Sociology of Law:
Sociology of law is a diverse field of study which examines the interaction of law with other aspects of society, such as the effect of legal institutions, doctrines, and practices on social practices, behavior, and structures. The areas of inquiry include the social development of legal institutions, the social construction of legal issues, and the relation of law to social change. Sociology of law also intersects with the fields of jurisprudence and the economic analysis of law (i.e. The Law & Economics Approach).
Max Weber-
Max Weber was trained in the law and wrote about it extensively in his sociological writings. Weber formulated the sociology of law as an external approach to law that studies the empirical characteristics of law, as opposed to the internal perspective of the legal sciences and the moral approach of the philosophy of law. Central to the development of modern law for Weber was the formal rationalization of law on the basis of general procedures that are applied equally and fairly to all. Modern rationalized law is also codified and impersonal in its application to specific cases.
Emile Durkheim-
Émile Durkheim wrote about law extensively in his important book on the social division of labour. Law is an indicator of the mode of integration of a society, which can be mechanical, among identical parts, or organic, among differentiated parts such as in industrialized societies. Over the course of history, law undergoes a transformation from repressive law to restitutive law. Restitutive law operates in societies in which there is a high degree of individual variation and emphasis on personal rights and responsibilities. Though Durkheim is best known in socio-legal scholarship for the theses of his first book The Division of Labour in Society his later works contain much other, often differently oriented but no less significant, writing about law.
In more recent years, a very wide range of theories has emerged in the sociology of law as a result of the proliferation of theories in sociology at large. Among the recent influences can be mentioned the work of the French philosopher Michel Foucault, the German social theorist Jürgen Habermas, feminism, postmodernism and deconstruction, neo-Marxism, and behaviorism. The variety of theoretical influences in the sociology of law has also marked the broader law and society field. However, although the multi-disciplinary law and society field remains very popular, the disciplinary speciality field of the sociology of law is today also better organized than ever in institutional and professional respects.
Law and Society-
In legal studies, the sociology of law is part of a more broadly conceived law and society approach or socio-legal studies. Its focus is on theoretically guided empirical studies. As such it draws on and contributes to social theory.
History
Initially, legal theorists were suspicious of the sociology of law. The influential Austrian jurist Hans Kelsen attacked one of its founders, Kelsen's compatriot Eugen Ehrlich, who wanted to emphasize the difference between positive law, which lawyers learn and apply, and other forms of 'law' or social norms that regulate everyday life, generally preventing conflicts from reaching lawyers and courts. Around 1900 Max Weber defined his "scientific" approach to law, identifying the "legal rational form" as a type of domination, not attributable to people but to abstract norms. Legal rationalism was his term for a body of coherent and calculable law which formed a precondition for modern political developments and the modern bureaucratic state and developed in parallel with the growth of capitalism. Another classic sociologist, Émile Durkheim, wrote in The Division of Labour in Society that as society becomes more complex, the body of civil law concerned primarily with restitution and compensation grows at the expense of criminal laws and penal sanctions. Durkheim also argued that a sociology of law should be developed alongside, and in close connection with, a sociology of morals, studying the development of value systems reflected in law. Other notable early legal sociologists included Hugo Sinzheimer, Theodor Geiger, Georges Gurvitch and Leon Petrażycki in Europe, and William Graham Sumner and Nicholas Timasheff in the U.S.Classical Sociology
The place of law in society was sociologically explored in the seminal works of both Max Weber and Émile Durkheim. The writings on law by these scholars are foundational to the entire sociology of law today.Max Weber-
Max Weber was trained in the law and wrote about it extensively in his sociological writings. Weber formulated the sociology of law as an external approach to law that studies the empirical characteristics of law, as opposed to the internal perspective of the legal sciences and the moral approach of the philosophy of law. Central to the development of modern law for Weber was the formal rationalization of law on the basis of general procedures that are applied equally and fairly to all. Modern rationalized law is also codified and impersonal in its application to specific cases.
Emile Durkheim-
Émile Durkheim wrote about law extensively in his important book on the social division of labour. Law is an indicator of the mode of integration of a society, which can be mechanical, among identical parts, or organic, among differentiated parts such as in industrialized societies. Over the course of history, law undergoes a transformation from repressive law to restitutive law. Restitutive law operates in societies in which there is a high degree of individual variation and emphasis on personal rights and responsibilities. Though Durkheim is best known in socio-legal scholarship for the theses of his first book The Division of Labour in Society his later works contain much other, often differently oriented but no less significant, writing about law.
Contemporary Scholarship
After World War II, the study of law was not central in sociology, although some well-known sociologists did write about the role of law in society. In the work of the Talcott Parsons, for instance, law is conceived as an essential mechanism of social control. In response to the criticisms that were developed against functionalism, other sociological perspectives of law emerged. Critical sociologists developed a perspective of law as an instrument of power. However, other theorists in the sociology of law, such as Philip Selznick, argued that modern law became increasingly responsive to a society's needs and had to be approached morally as well. Still other scholars, most notably the American sociologist Donald Black, developed a resolutely scientific theory of law on the basis of a paradigm of pure sociology. Equally broad in orientation, but again different, is the autopoietic systems theory of the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann, who sees law as unable to communicate with other social institutions because of the rigidity of its binary code of guilty/innocent. Social philosopher Jurgen Habermas disagrees with Luhmann and argues that the law can do a better job as a 'system' institution' by representing more faithfully the interests of everyday people in the 'lifeworld'. Perhaps the most sophisticated and critical sociological theory of law and lawyers is that of Pierre Bourdieu, who sees law as a social field in which actors struggle for cultural, symbolic and economic capital and in so doing develop the reproductive professional habitus of the lawyer.In more recent years, a very wide range of theories has emerged in the sociology of law as a result of the proliferation of theories in sociology at large. Among the recent influences can be mentioned the work of the French philosopher Michel Foucault, the German social theorist Jürgen Habermas, feminism, postmodernism and deconstruction, neo-Marxism, and behaviorism. The variety of theoretical influences in the sociology of law has also marked the broader law and society field. However, although the multi-disciplinary law and society field remains very popular, the disciplinary speciality field of the sociology of law is today also better organized than ever in institutional and professional respects.
Law and Society-
In legal studies, the sociology of law is part of a more broadly conceived law and society approach or socio-legal studies. Its focus is on theoretically guided empirical studies. As such it draws on and contributes to social theory.
Sociology of Law Links
| Sociology of Law Section of the American Sociological Society | View Website |
| Brown University Legal Studies Seminar | View Website |