o x f o r d l a w - graduate taught courses: law in society

oxford law

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Law in Society
Law is not only a means for giving certainty and stability to private relationships and maintaining social order, but also an instrument for directing society and solving social issues. The operation of law in society raises important issues of both a theoretical and an empirical nature: how does law actually function in society and how can this be understood? The first part of the course introduces these issues and considers the social foundations of law. The second part extends the scope to the study of law in non-western environments and issues considered by anthropologists of law.

Scholarship concerning law and society takes two directions. The more theoretical asks questions about law as a social formation, how law fits into society, what function it has, and how it interrelates with other aspects of society. Empirical approaches ask how law works in practical situations by conducting in-depth research into specific areas. These include regulation, businesses practices and the use of official discretion and considers matters such as the relationship between law and social rules, how courts work in practiceand how administrative and regulatory bodies apply the law. These studies are the basis for observing more general patterns concerning the ways law works in society. The first part of the course brings together these two directions, showing how theoretical ideas inform empirical research and visa versa.

The second part asks how we are to understand the different systems of law found in other societies. On what grounds can we even define them as law? These questions are central for anthropologists of law but arise, in practical ways, for those concerned with the implementation of international law and development projects and the promotion of good governance and democracy around the world. How do our laws and legal practices conflict with, complement or undermine their practices and expectations? These issues are considered in the context of classic sociological theories and anthropological approaches to the study of diverse forms of law. Asking about the other also causes us to reflect on the parameters and cultural specificity of our own concepts of law and students will be encouraged to think constructively and critically about familiar legal phenomena and their universal application.


			text: larger smaller

	Law in Society Law is not only a means for giving certainty and stability to private relationships and maintaining social order, but also an instrument for directing society and solving social issues. The operation of law in society raises important issues of both a theoretical and an empirical nature: how does law actually function in society and how can this be understood? The first part of the course introduces these issues and considers the social foundations of law. The second part extends the scope to the study of law in non-western environments and issues considered by anthropologists of law. Scholarship concerning law and society takes two directions. The more theoretical asks questions about law as a social formation, how law fits into society, what function it has, and how it interrelates with other aspects of society. Empirical approaches ask how law works in practical situations by conducting in-depth research into specific areas. These include regulation, businesses practices and the use of official discretion and considers matters such as the relationship between law and social rules, how courts work in practiceand how administrative and regulatory bodies apply the law. These studies are the basis for observing more general patterns concerning the ways law works in society. The first part of the course brings together these two directions, showing how theoretical ideas inform empirical research and visa versa. The second part asks how we are to understand the different systems of law found in other societies. On what grounds can we even define them as law? These questions are central for anthropologists of law but arise, in practical ways, for those concerned with the implementation of international law and development projects and the promotion of good governance and democracy around the world. How do our laws and legal practices conflict with, complement or undermine their practices and expectations? These issues are considered in the context of classic sociological theories and anthropological approaches to the study of diverse forms of law. Asking about the other also causes us to reflect on the parameters and cultural specificity of our own concepts of law and students will be encouraged to think constructively and critically about familiar legal phenomena and their universal application.