The law & society reader /
edited by Richard L. Abel.
- New York ; London : New York University Press, 1995.
- xii, 450 p. ; 26 cm.
Includes bibliographical references an index.
Disputing -- The oven bird's song: insiders, outsiders, and personal injuries in an American community / Going to court: strategies of dispute management in an American urban neighborhood / The management of disputes: automobile accident compensation in Japan / Community justice capitalist society, and human agency: the dialectics of collective law in the cooperative / Social control -- The selectivity of legal sanctions: an empirical investigation of shoplifting / The paradoxical impact of criminal sanctions microstructural findings / Plea bargaining and its history / Holistic effects in social control decision-making / Mandatory sentencing and the abolition of plea bargaining: the Michigan Felony Firearm Statute / Norm creation -- The new Dutch and German Drugs Laws: social and political conditions for criminalization and decriminalization / Worker safety, law, and social change: the Italian case / Regularization -- Organizational compliance with court-ordered reform / Penetrability of administrative systems: political "casework" and inmigration inspections / Equality -- Why the "haves" comes out ahead: speculations on the limits of legal change / Race and prosecutorial discretion in homicide cases / Structure and practice of familial-based justice in a criminal court / Ideology and consciousness -- The uses of history: language, ideology, and law in the United States and South Africa / Lay expectations of the civil justice system / Legal profession -- Law and social relations: vocabularies of motive in lawyer/client interaction / David E. Engel -- Sally Engle Merry -- Takao Tanase -- Stuart Henry -- Erhard Blankenburg -- Sheldon Ekland-Olson, John Lieb, and Louis Zurcher -- Albert W. Alschuler -- Robert M. Emerson -- Milton Heumann and Colin Loftin -- Sebastian Scheerer -- Kitty Calavita -- Sheldon Ekland-Olson and Steve J. Martin -- Janet A. Gilboy -- Marc Galanter -- Michael L. Radalet and Glenn L. Pierce -- Kathleen Daly -- Elizabeth Mertz -- William M. O'Barr and John M. Conley -- Austin Sarat and William L. Felstiner. Pt. 1. Ch. 1. Ch. 2. Ch. 3. Ch. 4. Pt. 2. Ch. 5. Ch. 6. Ch. 7. Ch. 8. Ch. 9. Pt. 3. Ch. 10. Ch. 11. Pt. 4. Ch. 12. Ch. 13. Pt. 4. Ch. 14. Ch. 15. Ch. 16. Pt. 5. Ch. 17. Ch. 18. Pt. 6. Ch. 19.
This book seeks to provide answers to everything you ever wanted to know about the law-except what the rules are or ought to be.
For centuries, the law has been considered a neutral, objective arena that sets societal standards and in which conflicting forces resolve disputes. More recently, however, the interaction between law and society has been recognized as a two-way street: society clearly exacts a considerable influence on the practice and evolution of law. Further, the discrepancy between what the law mandates and what the social reality is has served as evidence of the chasm between theory and practice, between the abstraction of law and its actual societal effects.
Examining such issues as the limits of legal change and the capacity of law to act as a revolutionary agent, the essays in this book offer a well-rounded introduction to the relationship between law and society. By focusing on flashpoint issues in legal studies-equality, consciousness and ideology, social control--and making ample use of engaging case studies, The Law and Society Review provides an invaluable resource for scholars and students alike.