1st Edition
Jurisprudence and Socio-Legal Studies Intersecting Fields
This book presents a set of related studies aimed at showing key points of intersection and common interest between jurisprudence and socio-legal studies, which are otherwise typically considered distinct fields. It reflects and draws on the author’s work in these areas over more than four decades.
The first half of the book explores theoretical issues surrounding the enterprise of socio-legal research, its current scope, and its historical traditions. Some chapters directly compare juristic theory and socio-legal inquiry. Chapters in Part II profile a selection of European jurists whose work offers important insights for socio-legal inquiry. Other chapters frame these studies, explore the history of interactions between jurisprudence and socio-legal research, and show points of convergence between these fields that are increasingly important today. A main aim of the book is to show the current urgency of linking and broadening juristic and social scientific interests in law.
Internationally oriented, the book will be of interest to students and researchers in the areas of jurisprudence, legal philosophy, sociology of law, socio-legal studies, and comparative law. It is suitable as supplementary reading for courses in any of these subjects.
Preface xiii
Introduction: Mapping Inquiries about Law 1
About Jurisprudence 1
About Socio-Legal Studies 3
About Sociology of Law 5
Profiles in Pre-Hart Jurisprudence 8
How to Build Bridges 10
PART I
A Terrain of Socio-Legal Inquiry 11
1 The Development of Sociology of Law 13
Living Law: A Problem for State Law? 15
Escaping the Limits of Living Law 18
Legal Pluralism and the State 22
Rethinking ‘Law’ and ‘Society’ 24
2 The Identity and Function of Sociology of Law 26
A Stepchild among the Disciplines 26
Sociology of Law as a Field of Practice 29
The Problem of the Concept of Law 33
Instability and Promise 36
3 The Place of Values in Socio-Legal Studies 39
Ultimate Values in Regulatory Practice 41
How Instrumentalism Marginalises Values 44
Culture and Community 47
Tendencies towards Cultural Closure 49
Values in Socio-Legal Theory 52
4 Legal Culture and Cultural Diversity 56
Components of Culture 57
A Politics of Legal Culture 59
Legal Culture in the Conference Room 61
Cultural Self-Sufficiency 63
Law and Culture across State Boundaries 65
Culture as an Umbrella Concept 66
5 Socio-Legal Studies and the Law School 68
A View from the Law School 68
Legal Scholars and Social Theory 73
PART II
Juristic Radicals as Socio-Legal Pioneers 77
6 Jurisprudence in Context 79
Theory and Variation in Socio-Legal Inquiry 79
A Bricolage Method 81
Scope and Uses of Jurisprudential Theory 84
Four Jurists and Their Times 87
7 The Jurist as Humanist Polymath (Petrażycki) 94
Petrażycki in the World of Jurists 95
Petrażycki’s Influence on Legal Sociology 98
Petrażycki and Current Socio-Legal Inquiry 101
Petrażycki’s Hidden Legacy 111
8 The Jurist as Legal Sociologist (Ehrlich) 112
The Relativity of Centres and Peripheries 113
Ehrlich in Empire and Culture 116
Responses to Radicalism 119
The State and Social Associations 122
Ehrlich’s Concept of Law 124
An Assessment 128
9 Radical Legal Pluralism in the Shadow of Fascism (Romano) 130
An Enigmatic Classic 131
Legal Pluralism for Lawyers 132
Legal Pluralism for Social Scientists 133
Romano’s Juristic Radicalism 135
An Institutional Theory 136
The Rise of Fascism and the Context of
The Legal Order 139
Legal Pluralism in Contemporary Politics 141
An Uncertain Role for the State 144
The Limits of a Lawyer’s Focus 146
10 A Functional Jurisprudence for the Welfare State (Lundstedt) 147
A Method of Reading Juristic Theories 147
The View from Afar: Lundstedt Abroad 149
Lundstedt in Swedish Context 154
A Wider Context: The Jurist’s Role 159
PART III
Mapping Intersecting Fields 165
11 Parallel Histories: Jurisprudence and Social Science 167
Law in the Evolution of Sociology 168
Sociology in the Perspective of Jurists 171
Pathways to Collaboration 176
The Memory of Pioneers 182
12 Contemporary Interactions: Legal Theory and Social Theory 183
Theme 1: Legal Individualism 184
Theme 2: Law’s Autonomy and Identity 187
Theme 3: Law and Power 189
Theme 4: Law as an Integrative Mechanism 192
Theme 5: Law in and beyond the State 195
Conclusion 197
13 Linked Futures: Jurisprudence and Socio-Legal Studies 199
The Identity of Socio-Legal Studies 200
The Identity of Jurisprudence 203
Three Themes for the Present and Future 208
References 214
Index 232
Biography
Roger Cotterrell is Anniversary Professor of Legal Theory at Queen Mary University of London. Educated as both a lawyer and a sociologist, he has written widely on jurisprudence, sociology of law, and comparative law, and has devoted much of his career to building conversations between the contrasting traditions of jurisprudence and sociology of law. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the UK Academy of Social Sciences. His book Sociological Jurisprudence, published by Routledge in 2018, won the international Dennis Mahoney Prize for Legal Theory in 2022.
‘This is a marvelous collection: the essays show Roger Cotterrell at his best: incisive but also open-minded, offering valuable lessons to both established scholars and beginning law students.’
Professor Brian Bix, Frederick W. Thomas Professor of Law and Philosophy, University of Minnesota, USA
