Why Must Legal Ideas Be Interpreted Sociologically?

Abstract

Sociology of law and socio-legal studies are sometimes declared unable to give insight into the nature of legal ideas or to clarify questions about legal doctrine. The idea that law has its own 'truth' -its own way of seeing the world -has been used to deny that sociological perspectives have any special claim to provide understanding of law as doctrine. This paper tries to specify what sociological understanding of legal ideas entails. It argues that such an understanding is not merely useful but necessary for legal studies. Legal scholarship entails sociological understanding of law. The two are inseparable.

Stalking Victims, Victims of Sexual Violence and Criminal Justice System Responses: Is there a Difference or just ‘Business as Usual’?

“…to their social and job-related activities, taking additional safety measures, moving home(s) and suffering physical or mental health impairment. This is an important provision as it takes into account the disruptions, life changes and psycho-social ramifications that victims often experience as a result of being stalked (Home Office, 2012) Given that law constitutes an important part of social life and structure that often shapes the way social reality is perceived (Cotterrell, 1998) the criminalisation of stalking and its legal recognition may help raise social awareness about the deviance of the behaviour and improve understanding about its effects. However, as it will be later discussed, legal reform does not necessarily entail that stalking victims will be taken seriously and their cases will be properly dealt with by the criminal justice system (Russell, 2012).…”

Current perceptions of statutory supervision of midwifery: Time for change?

“…This study offers a socio-legal exploration of midwifery governance and legal frameworks (Fitzpatrick, 1995;Cotterrell, 1998). Ewick and Silbey (1998) suggest that socio-legal studies may be defined as the exploration of the function of law in shared societal situations in an attempt to understand the influence that each has on the other, in this instance the impact that regulation has on the practice of midwifery.…”

Defining and Describing What We Do: Doctrinal Legal Research

“…Roger Cotterrell has argued that true legal scholarship must entail a sociological understanding of law. 124 But that debate is not central to our discussion of legal doctrinal methodology at this point and is not being pursued in this paper. Many aspects of the law are contingent on context, and need to be interpreted and analysed for meaning.…”