Book Review: Law in Society
| DOI | 10.1177/0067205X6600200111 |
| Author | Peter Brett |
| Date | 01 March 1966 |
| Published date | 01 March 1966 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
BOOK REVIEWS
Law
in
Society, by
GEOFFREY
SAWER,
Professor
of
Law in the Research
School
of
Sciences
at
the Australian National
University;
(Oxford
University Press, 1965), pp. 1-210. Australian price £2 Is. 3d.
This is the latest edition
to
the Clarendon Law Series
and
it
maintains
the standard already set by the monographs which have previously been
published in this series.
It
is, as the
author
explains,
not
an
attempt
to
present asystematic legal sociology
but
rather
asummary account
of
some problems concerning the social history
of
law
and
the social relations
of
law in contemporary society. The
author
begins with two chapters
discussing the relationship between law
and
sociology
and
the nature
of
sociological jurisprudence. These may prove alittle difficult for
the reader who has
not
already acquired some familiarity with the field ;
but
thereafter Professor Sawer turns
to
other problems
and
discusses
in
turn
the place
of
law (if
it
can be said
to
exist) in primitive society,
the relationship between social evolution
and
legal evolution, courts,
judges, lawyers, the problems
of
social control
and
social order,
and
the
interests protected by law.
In
the two final chapters he discusses the
relationship between folkways, law-ways,
and
state-ways,
and
the
relationship between legal science
and
social science.
Professor Sawer is
not
here endeavouring
to
set
out
ajurisprudence
of
his own
but
rather
to
explain for the readers
to
whom
this series is
addressed aconspectus
of
the main lines
of
work
that
has already been
done, illustrated by insights which he contributes from his own knowledge
of
legal systems with which he is familiar.
In
this task he has admirably
succeeded. This is
not
to
say
that
one must necessarily agree with every
point
that
he makes, but nevertheless the
book
as awhole carries con-
viction. Occasionally one encounters expressions
of
opinion with which
one
is tempted
to
sharply disagree, such as, for example, Professor
Sawer's suggestion
that
the views which were eventually defeated in
Ridge
v.
Baldwin1were as persuasive as those
that
prevailed;
and
Iwould
find
it
hard
to
accept his statement
that
in England there is astrong
conviction
that
judges are chosen from amongst members
of
the
bar
without regard
to
political opinion.
It
is not, however,
to
be expected
in awork
of
this kind
that
one will agree with every viewpoint expressed
by
the
author,
and
if
one occasionally dissents from his views one is more
than
rewarded by the insights which appear
on
page after page, often
expressed in the witty
and
epigrammatic style which one has come
to
expect
of
Professor Sawer. Such remarks as
"One
man's
absence
of
red tape is another
man's
absence
of
due
process"
and
"
In
large
parts
of
the U.S.A., monogamy has been replaced by polygamy
and
polyandry,
only successive instead
of
simultaneous"
enliven the
book
and
make
the
reader press
on
eagerly from one page
to
the next.
1[1964] A.C. 40.
139
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