Books on Sociology of Law

Sociology of Law

Blackwell Companion to Law and Society (Blackwell Companions to Sociology) Austin Sarat

Habermas on Law and Democracy: Critical Exchanges (Philosophy, Social Theory, and the Rule of Law) Book by Michel Rosenfeld (Editor), Andrew Arato (Editor)

The Sociology of Law: Classical and Contemporary Perspectives
Book by A. Javier Trevino, Javier A. Trevino

Social Context and Social Location in the Sociology of Law - by Gayle M. Macdonald (Editor)

The Sociology of Law - Book by R. B. Cotterrell, Roger Cotterrell

Law and Society (7th Edition) Book by Steven Vago

A Primer in the Sociology of Law Book by Dragan Milovanovic

Marxism and Law (Marxist Introductions) Book by Hugh Collins

Interrogating Incest: Feminism, Foucault and the Law (Sociology of Law and Crime) by Vikki Bell

Law in Our Lives: An Introduction - Book by David O. Friedrichs - Law in Our Lives provides a broad, interdisciplinary "mapping" of the nature of law as a social institution.

The Oldest Social Science?: Configurations of Law and Modernity (Oxford Socio-Legal Studies) Book by Timothy Murphy, W. T. Murphy

The Common Place of Law : Stories from Everyday Life (Chicago Series in Law and Society) Book by Patricia Ewick, Susan S. Silbey

The Law and Society Reader: Readings on the Social Study of Law
Book by Lawrence Meir Friedman, Stewart MacAulay, John A. Stookey (Editors)

A General Jurisprudence of Law and Society (Oxford Socio-Legal Studies)
Book by Brian Z. Tamanaha

Foucault and Law : Towards a Sociology of Law as Governance (Law and Social Theory) Book by Alan Hunt, Gary Wickham

An Introduction to the Sociology of Law (Law and Society Series.)
Book by Nicholas S. Timasheff, A. Javier Trevino

Sociology of Law (Law and Society Series) Book by Georges Gurvitch, Alan Hunt

Sociology of Law: A Social-Structural Perspective
Book by William M. Evan

Fundamental Principles of the Sociology of Law (Law and Society Series) Book by Eugen Ehrlich, Klaus A. Ziegert, Roscoe Pound (Introduction)

Jurisprudence As Ideology (Sociology of Law and Crime) Book by Valerie Kerruish

Child Custody and the Politics of Gender (Sociology of Law and Crime Series) Book by Carol Smart, Selma Sevenhuijsen (Editor)

The Sociology of Law and Criminology (International Library of Sociology)

Crime: An Analytical Appraisal: The Sociology Of Law And Criminology (International Library of Sociology) Book by Manuel Lopez-Rey

Human Measure: Social Thought in the Western Legal Tradition
Book by Donald R. Kelley

Law and Society: Critical Approaches Book by Gerald Turkel
This book presents a critical approach to issues in law and society. It is concerned with defining how the rule of law has changed as a result of changes in the economy; the development of social movements in the U.

Punish and Critique: Towards a Feminist Analysis of Penality (Sociology of Law and Crime) Book by Adrian Howe

Thinking About Law: Perspectives on the History, Philosophy and Sociology of Law Book by Rosemary Hunter, Richard Ingleby, Richard Johnstone (Editors)

Limited Responsibilities: Social Movements and Criminal Justice (Sociology of Law and Crime) Book by Tamar Pitch, John Lea (Translator)

Courting Conflict: The Israeli Military Court System in the West Bank and Gaza
Book by Lisa Hajjar

Law/Society: Origins, Interactions, and Change (Sociology for a New Century Series) Book by John R. Sutton

Jurismania Book by Paul Campos, Paul F. Campos

Reviews:

Law in Our Lives: An Introduction
Book by David O. Friedrichs - Law in Our Lives provides a broad, interdisciplinary "mapping" of the nature of law as a social institution.
Themes addressed in this student-oriented text include:
The meaning of law and legal reasoning.
Law in relation to justice, morality, and religion.
Explaining law and society: schools of jurisprudence and sociolegal theories.
Major legal traditions and systems of law.
Perspectives on comparative law.
A life in the legal profession.
Legal culture and beliefs about law and legal behavior.
Legal ethics.
Legal socialization.
How law has been reformed.
No other text offers students a more comprehensive introduction to understanding law and society.
David O. Friedrichs is Professor of Sociology/Criminal Justice at the University of Scranton (Pennsylvania).

Habermas on Law and Democracy: Critical Exchanges (Philosophy, Social Theory, and the Rule of Law) Book by Michel Rosenfeld (Editor), Andrew Arato (Editor)
In the first essay, Habermas himself succinctly presents the centerpiece of his theory: his proceduralist paradigm of law. The following essays comprise elaborations, criticisms, and further explorations by others of the most salient issues addressed in his theory. The distinguished group of contributorsinternationally prominent scholars in the fields of law, philosophy, and social theoryincludes many who have been closely identified with Habermas as well as some of his best-known critics. The final essay is a thorough and lengthy reply by Habermas, which not only engages the most important arguments raised in the preceding essays but also further elaborates and refines some of his own key contributions in Between Facts and Norms.

Marxism and Law (Marxist Introductions) Book by Hugh Collins
This book applies the insights of Marxist social theory and politics to law. After presenting a clear and unified discussion of Marxism, Collins examines the special characteristics of legal institutions, rules, and ideals. He focuses particularly on the Marxist critique of the ideal of the Rule of Law, discussing law and class oppression, ideology and law, base and superstructure, the future of law, and class struggle and the rule of law.

The Sociology of Law: Classical and Contemporary Perspectives
Book by A. Javier Trevino, Javier A. Trevino
Surveys the major traditions of the sociology of law to show how 19th- century thought has directly influenced the emergence of 20th-century theory. Includes chapter summaries, and excerpts from key works. For use in upper-division undergraduate and graduate courses in sociology of law, law and society, and sociolegal studies. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Interrogating Incest: Feminism, Foucault and the Law (Sociology of Law and Crime) Vikki Bell
Interrogating Incest shows how feminist theory, when combined with insights from the work of Michel Foucault, can create ways of understanding incest, a topic usually limited to the category of sexual violence and abuse, but otherwise neglected. Vikki Bell discusses this issue in the context of sociological theory, feminist theory and criminal law. By examining incest in the context of Foucauldian theories, she considers how feminist discourse on incest fits into existing ways of talking about sex. Closely surveying the historical background of incest legislation and the theoretical issues involved, Bell shows how the criminalization of incest poses difficult questions and dilemmas.

Social Context and Social Location in the Sociology of Law
Book by Gayle M. Macdonald (Editor)
The sociology of law in the 1990s encountered uncertain terrain. The reconsideration of race, class, and gender destabilized the discourses of the previous 30 years.
Critical theory in the sociology of law needs to address the fracturing and disruption of the very social services that claim to support the needs of the victim, the poor, and the child. The fact, for example, that apathy and despair have replaced activism in the "community" and that survival has replaced service as the economic motif from which we are expected to construct our lives are problems that the sociology of law is just beginning to understand.
Represents an evolving body of critical analysis of the law and its social context. Moving from Gayle MacDonald's overview of the traditional discourses of the sociology of law and the promise of critical theory, contributing authors offer insights into the effect of social context on the formation of law and the ways in which the particularities of social location bear on the application of law and resistance to it.
This text weaves social location and the social context, stories about law in ways that reveal the exciting new developments in critical theory in this field. Critical theorists tend to be characterized by an ability to move easily between micro/macro traditions, and to strengthen theories of conflict by adding new, micro explanations that come from the interpretative tradition, such as feminist theory and social constructionism.

The Oldest Social Science?: Configurations of Law and Modernity (Oxford Socio-Legal Studies) Book by Timothy Murphy, W. T. Murphy
This book takes a critical look at some of the underlying assumptions which shape our current understanding of the role and purpose of law and society. Arguing that the relationship between law and society must be reconceived in a different way in the era of economics, sociology and statistics, Murphy contends that the traditional vision of the role of law, rooted in a complex set of hierarchical assumptions, is no longer adequate.

The Common Place of Law : Stories from Everyday Life (Chicago Series in Law and Society) Book by Patricia Ewick, Susan S. Silbey
Why do some people not hesitate to call the police to quiet a barking dog in the middle of the night, while others accept the pain and losses associated with defective products, unsuccesful surgery, and discrimination?
One narrative is based on an idea of the law as magisterial and remote. Another views the law as a game with rules that can be manipulated to one's advantage. A third narrative describes the law as an arbitrary power that is actively resisted. Drawing on these extensive case studies, Ewick and Silbey present individual experiences interwoven with an analysis that charts a coherent and compelling theory of legality. A groundbreaking study of law and narrative, The Common Place of Law depicts the institution as it is lived: strange and familiar, imperfect and ordinary, and at the center of daily life.

A Primer in the Sociology of Law (A Harrow and Heston Special Edge Supplementary Text) Book by Dragan Milovanovic
Prof. Bruce Arrigo, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
"Sophisticated yet subtle, insightful yet accessible, this is THE reference book for understanding theoretical developments in the sociology of law."
Excerpt from Foreword by Prof. Stuart Henry, Wayne State University

Law and Society Book by Steven Vago
This informative, highly readable and comprehensive book offers a balanced, current and comprehensive overview of the legal system and administrative, criminal and civil law in cross-cultural context. It focuses on the evolution of modern legal systems, current intellectual movements in law, interplay between law and social change and the main concerns and issues in the profession and practice of law. Extensive new material includes detailed and up-to-date discussions on the transformation of legal systems in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union and some of the unintended consequences which promoted organized crime; critical race theory; community policing in Japan; trends in sentencing guidelines; and alternative dispute resolution and in the death penalty controversy. For anyone with an interest in law and society.

Limited Responsibilities: Social Movements and Criminal Justice (Sociology of Law and Crime) Book by Tamar Pitch, John Lea (Translator)
Limited Responsibilities analyzes the notions of responsibility in relation to social and political institutions and also individuals. Focusing particularly on the criminal justice system, it demostrates how the breaking down of boundaries between institutions results in increased empowerment of the individual.

Courting Conflict: The Israeli Military Court System in the West Bank and Gaza
Book by Lisa Hajjar
Israel's military court system, a centerpiece of Israel's apparatus of control in the West Bank and Gaza since 1967, has prosecuted hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. This authoritative book provides a rare look at an institution that lies both figuratively and literally at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Lisa Hajjar has conducted in-depth interviews with dozens of Israelis and Palestinians-including judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers, defendants, and translators-about their experiences and practices to explain how this system functions, and how its functioning has affected the conflict.

Law/Society: Origins, Interactions, and Change (Sociology for a New Century Series) Book by John R. Sutton
PART ONE: LEGAL CHANGE
Evolutionary Theories of Legal Change
Maine and Durkheim
Law, Class Conflict and the Economy
Marxian Theory
Law and the State
Max Weber's Sociology of Law
The Problem of Law in the Activist State
PART TWO: LEGAL ACTION
Voting Rights and School Desegregation
Equal Employment Opportunity
PART THREE: THE LEGAL PROFESSION
Law as a Profession
The Transformation of Legal Practice in the Late 20th Century

Jurismania Book by Paul Campos, Paul F. Campos
In Jurismania, Campos does his best to demonstrate that the behavior of the legal mind, with its insistence on the "rule of law," is a "culturally sanctioned form of obsessive-compulsive behavior." In his more charitable moments, he is willing to concede that it may be suffering not from delusion, but from religious fervor. About the nicest thing he has to say about the American legal system is that it is a tremendous waste of financial resources.