Social Cohesion and Legal Coercion
Social Cohesion and Legal Coercion

Author: Leon Shaskolsky Sheleff

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2021-11-15

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 9004495924

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The book is a critical analysis of the work of Max Weber, Emile Durkheim and Karl Marx. It focuses on their separate analyses of the role of law in society, pointing out their faults and errors, and the resultant impact on modern social science. The author takes issue with Weber's work on rationality, with Durkheim's work on repressive and restitutive law, and with Marx's work on social justice and law as part of the super-structure. In each section of the book he shows the implications that flow from a re-assessment and re-interpretation of their work for an understanding of society. The book is multi-disciplinary, making ample reference to law, sociology, anthropology, history, religion, ecology, criminology, philosophy and economics. Its various chapters discuss a wide range of themes, including rationality, tradition, science, political authority, conflict resolution, community, justice and altruism.

Coercion and the Nature of Law
Coercion and the Nature of Law

Author: Kenneth Einar Himma

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2020-05-06

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0192597175

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The Coercion Thesis has been a subject of longstanding debate, but legal positivist scholarship over the last several decades has concluded that coercion is not necessary for law. Coercion and the Nature of Law is concerned with reviving the Coercion Thesis, presenting a strong case for the inherently coercive nature of legal regulation, and arguing that anything properly characterized as a legal system must back legal norms prohibiting breaches of the peace with the threat of a coercive sanction. Himma presents the argument that people are self-interested beings who must compete in a world of scarcity for everything they need to survive and thrive. The need to compete for resources naturally leads to conflict that can breach the peace, and threatens the ability to live together in a community and reap the social benefits of cooperation. Law only functions as a system if it can maintain the peace enough for community to continue, and thus systems of law cannot succeed in doing anything that we want systems of law to do unless they back laws prohibiting violent assaults on persons or property with the threat of punishment; without sanctions, we would descend into something resembling a condition of war-of-all-against-all. We adopt coercive systems of regulation precisely to avoid having to live under such conditions. The book is divided into three parts: (1) a prima facie logical-empirical case for the Coercion Thesis, (2) a study of the "society of angels" and international law counterexamples, and why they do not refute the thesis, and (3) an analysis of how law guides behaviour and the implications of the Coercion Thesis on reasons for action. Going against the current conventional wisdom in legal philosophy, Himma makes a systematic defence of the Coercion Thesis arguing that coercion or enforcement mechanisms are not only a necessary feature of legal systems, but a conceptually necessary feature of legal systems.

Law, Society and Community
Law, Society and Community

Author: Richard Nobles

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-04-22

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 1317107292

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This collection of socio-legal studies, written by leading theorists and researchers from around the world, offers original, perceptive and critical contributions to ideas and theories that have been expounded by Roger Cotterrell over a long and distinguished career. Engaging with many classic issues and theories of the sociology of law, the contributions are likely to become classics themselves as they tackle some of the most significant challenges that modern law faces. They do not shy away from what one of the contributors describes as the complexity and multiplicity of our contemporary legal world. The book is organized in three parts: socio-legal themes; methodological and jurisprudential themes; globalization, cultural and comparative law themes. Starting with a chapter that re-engages with the need to interpret legal ideas sociologically, and ending with one that explores the global significance of modern fascination with the idea of the rule of law, this selection offers important additions to the oeuvre of Roger Cotterrell (a list of whose academic writings is included in the book).

Durkheim and the Law
Durkheim and the Law

Author: Steven Lukes

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-09-16

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 1349926337

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The law was central to Durkheim's sociological theory and to his efforts to establish sociology as a distinctive discipline. This revised and updated second edition of Durkheim and the Law brings together key texts which demonstrate the development of Durkheim's thinking on the sociology of law, several of them newly translated here. The editors, both world-renowned Durkheim scholars, provide a comprehensive analysis of the intellectual significance and distinctiveness of Durkheim's work on the subject. They show how his ideas evolved over time; how they contributed to the development of a distinctively Durkheimian vision of a science of society; and they provide a comprehensive assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of his theorizing about law, as well as its continuing relevance for contemporary sociology. Enriched with a new introduction and useful learning features, this book remains a major reference for students of socio-legal theory.

The Division of Labor in Society
The Division of Labor in Society

Author: Emile Durkheim

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2014-02-25

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 1476749736

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"In 1893, a young doctoral student was to publish an entirely original work on the nature of labor and production as they were being shaped by the industrial revolution. Emile Durkheim's The Division of Labor in Society studies the nature of social solidarity and explores the ties that bind one person to the next in order to hold society together. This revised and updated second edition fluently conveys original arguments for contemporary readers. Leading Durkheim scholar Steve Lukes's new introduction builds upon Lewis Coser's original -- which places the work in its intellectual and historical context and pinpoints its central ideas and arguments -- by focusing on the text's significance for how we ought to think sociologically about some central problems that face us today."--Back cover.

The Coerciveness of Law
The Coerciveness of Law

Author: Grant Lamond

Publisher:

Published: 2010

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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One of the central features associated with law is its coerciveness. A major source of our interest in law's coerciveness is that the use of coercion is thought to require moral justification - hence the liberal interest in the harm principle. This article seeks to contribute to the debate about the justifiable grounds for legal coercion by clarifying the ways in which law is coercive and demonstrating that coerciveness is a highly complex phenomenon. It argues that the legal authorization of physical force and sanctions, rather than the existence of enforcement institutions, is the appropriate focus for these enquiries. It considers the appropriate methodology for understanding the nature of coercion and goes on to argue that there are a group of nested conceptions of coercion which perform different roles in different contexts. The differences between these conceptions help to account for some of the disagreements over law's coerciveness. There is also an important contrast between laws which aim to coerce and those which merely have a coercive effect. All of these internal distinctions within coercion matter because they have considerable significance for the justification of coercive legal measures. Finally, it is argued that sanctions are neither necessary for the law to be coercive, nor always sufficient.

The Future of Tradition
The Future of Tradition

Author: Leon Shaskolsky Sheleff

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-09-05

Total Pages: 521

ISBN-13: 1136326081

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Recent years have seen an increased interest in the variety of cultures co-existing within one state, and a growing acknowledgement of the values ensconced in pluralistic social structures. this book examines the manner in which indigenous people can function in modern states, preserving their traditional customs, while simultaneously adapting aspects of their culture to the challenges posed by modern life. Whereas it was formerly assumed that these tribal frameworks were doomed to extinction, and some states even encouraged such a process, there has been a revival in their vitality, linked to a recognition of their rights. The book offers a comprehensive survey of various aspects of tribal life, focusing on political issues such as the meaning of sovereignty, legal issues dealing with the role of custom and social issues concerned with sustaining communal life. A focused study is made of a whole series of legal factors, relating to possession and ownership of land, religious rites, the nature of polygamous marriages, the assertion of group rites, the manner of peacefully resolving disputes and allied questions. Recent judicial decisions are analysed as a reflection of the far-reaching changes that have taken place, in a process that has seen the former disregard of basic rights of indigenous people being replaced by an awareness of the injustices perpetrated in the past and a willingness to seek to redress them. The comparison between approaches of different English-speaking countries provides an account of interwoven developments.

Law/Society
Law/Society

Author: John Sutton

Publisher: Pine Forge Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 9780761987055

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A core text for the Law and Society or Sociology of Law course offered in Sociology, Criminal Justice, Political Science, and Schools of Law. * John Sutton offers an explicitly analytical perspective to the subject - how does law change? What makes law more or less effective in solving social problems? What do lawyers do? * Chapter 1 contrasts normative and sociological perspectives on law, and presents a brief primer on the logic of research and inference as it is applied to law related issues. * Theories of legal change are discussed within a common conceptual framework that highlights the explantory strengths and weaknesses of different arguments. * Discussions of "law in action" are explicitly comparative, applying a consistent model to explain the variable outcomes of civil rights legislation. * Many concrete, in-depth examples throughout the chapters.

The Struggle over Law in Europe
The Struggle over Law in Europe

Author: Aldo Sandulli

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-04-29

Total Pages: 215

ISBN-13: 1040022596

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This book examines the role of law in Europe at a time when economic policies have become dominant not only on this continent but globally. Can law be seen as a mere infrastructure? Or does it contribute to defining the social and legal order through its own inherent rules? If the second hypothesis is true, what might these rules be, and how may they be identified? Lastly, to what extent can agreeing a definition of the role of law affect the future of Europe? With the Next Generation European Union, the EU has introduced an unprecedented investment plan for economic recovery and resilience. In doing so, it has become the most important financial intermediary on the continent. But is this simply the prelude to a European economic and financial revival, or does it also aim to strengthen the European legal order in social, political, and constitutional terms? This book argues that the role of law in Europe should be to achieve a balanced relationship between freedom and solidarity; encouraging economic competition, but also social cohesion. Analyzing the role of law in the project of European integration, it maintains that law should be more than an infrastructure for finance and economics, showing how it can act as a guide and a binding force to achieve a more balanced relationship between economics, politics, and law. This book will be of interest to scholars in the fields of public law, European law, law and economics, the philosophy of law, legal history, political theory, and political science, as well as others concerned with the future of European integration.