Core concepts and Basic Problems in Socio-legal Studies 2200-1CWPP63
There are many empirical and theoretical studies of law made by non-legal scholars: sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists or psychologists. They inquiry into how does the law work, what it means to people involved and what effects does it have on society at large. Such studies differ from what lawyers normally do because they use concepts, methods and research techniques typical for social sciences, not legal scholarship. This difference in perspectives makes such studies interesting and relevant.
Still, lawyers - and even legal scholars - are often unaware of this great wealth of knowledge, which is often detrimental to their understanding of the actual role the law plays in social, political or economic realities. The objective of the course is thus to introduce law students to main concepts and basic problems of socio-legal studies and by doing so increase their awareness of social setting and social working of the law. The course is interdisciplinary: following common understanding of the term „socio-legal studies” it combines elements of sociology of law, anthropology of law, economic analyses of law, social policy research, social theory and legal theory. Depending on the composition of the student group, an emphasis may also be put on Eastern-European sources and inspirations of contemporary socio-legal movement, including the works of two Polish founding fathers of sociology of law: Leon Petrażycki and Adam Podgórecki. Students will also have the opportunity to get acquainted with peculiarities of legal culture of Poland and other countries of the region. Apart of that, universal themes of socio-legal studies will be examined – the social nature of legal norms, interconnections and interactions between law and culture, patterns and methods of dispute resolution, access to law, law as a policy tool, legal pluralism, law as a method of social control and alternatives to it, law under globalization.
Students will be encouraged to voice their interests in particular sociolegal issues and the final list of topics, readings and in-class activites will be based on that.
Type of course
elective courses
Mode
Blended learning
Classroom
Prerequisites (description)
Learning outcomes
As a result of the course the students will:
- learn selected concepts and theories from social sciences
- learn selected concepts used in social sciences to describe the social nature and social working of the law
- be able to recognize social phenomena intervening in legislation, application of law, usage of the law by laypersons, perception of law by laypersons and legal professionals
- gain awareness of the spatial, cultural, and temporal variablity of law
- improve their ability to describe and understand the working of law in society
- aquire the skills necessary for further studies of law in social sciences, eventually leading to practical application of social-scientific scholarship in legislation, evaluation and application of law
- gain more reflexivity with regard to their own social roles as lawyers.
Assessment criteria
Grades will be awarded based on assessment of regular writing assignments - students will be asked to briefly comment in writing on papers read for classes.
Assignments will be collected, commented upon and graded using course website.
Practical placement
Not applicable
Bibliography
Course will use excerpts from some of the books and papers listed below.
Requests for different and/or supplementary readings are encouraged and will be considered.
Reading material will be made available to students by the instructor.
A website will be established and made available to students to manage the course.
K. Calavita - Invitation to Law & Society. An Introduction to the Study of Real Law. The University of Chicago Press, 2010
W. Weigel, Economics of the Law. A primer, Routledge 2008.
R. Cooter, T. Ulen, Law and Economics. Pearson 2004 and later
B. Latour, The Making of Law: An Ethnography of the Conseil d'Etat. Polity 2010
J.M. Maravall, A. Przeworski, Democracy and the Rule of Law, Cambridge UP, 2003
J. Sanders and V. L. Hamilton (eds.), Handbook of Justice Research in Law, Kluwer, 2002
R. Banakar, M. Travers (eds), Theory and method in socio-legal research, Hart, Oxford 2005;
J. R. Sutton, Law/Society. Origins, Interactions and change, Pine Forge Press, 2001;
A. Podgórecki and V. Olgiati (eds.), Totalitarian and Post-Totalitarian Law, Darmouth, Aldershot 1996;
S. Falk Moore (ed.) Law and Anthropology, Blackwell, Oxford 2005;
J. Górecki (ed.) Sociology and jurisprudence of Leon Petrażycki, University of Illinois Press, Urbana 1975;
M. Travers and J. Manzo (eds.) Law in Action, Ashgate, Aldershot 1997;
A. Kojder, Leon Petrazycki’s Socio-legal Ideas and their Contemporary Continuation, Journal of Classical Sociology 6(3)/2002;
B. S. Turner, Vulnerability and human rights, Pennsylvania State UP, 2006
M. Delmas-Marty, Towards a truly common law. Europe as a Laboratory for Legal Pluralism, Cambridge UP, Cambridge 2002;
R. Cotterrell (ed.) Law and society, New York UP, New York 1994
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: