Invoking Indignation: Reflections on Future Directions of Socio–legal Studies
| Author | Paddy Hillyard |
| Published date | 01 December 2002 |
| Date | 01 December 2002 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6478.00237 |
JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY
VOLUME 29, NUMBER 4, DECEMBER 2002
ISSN: 0263-323X, pp. 645–56
Invoking Indignation: Reflections on Future Directions of
Socio-legal Studies
Paddy Hillyard*
The Research Assessment Exercise has produced some very unequal
results. Lawyers are now three times more likely to be in grade 5 or 5*
departments than social policy colleagues. The paper begins with a
light-hearted theoretical explanation of these results to make the serious
point that an old fashioned notion of power and a simple analysis of the
available data can produce important insights into what is happening in
the real world – a research paradigm which the RAE has discouraged.
The paper then makes a number of criticisms of current theoretical
endeavours in sociolegal studies: the confusion over what is meant by
theory, its fixation on deconstruction and a Foucauldian notion of
power, and the neglect of universal categories. The central argument is
that sociolegal studies needs to focus more on the materiality of
everyday life and, in particular, the growing inequalities in the world
and the role that law and legal institutions play in the structuring of
these inequalities. In conclusion, the paper argues that as sociolegal
scholars we need to analyse the impact of our decisions on others and to
take a stand against unfair and unjust distribution of resources whether
at the local, national or international level. We need a vision of a just
society which is informed by moral indignation.
INTRODUCTION
To debate the future directions of socio-legal studies is no easy task. The
boundaries of the subject – or can we now call it a discipline?
1
– remain fluid
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* School of Policy Studies, University of Ulster at Jordanstown,
Newtownabbey, Co. Antrim BT37 0QB, Northern Ireland
My thanks to Dave Cowan and Joe Sim for helpful comments.
1 On whether sociolegal studies is an approach, discipline or paradigm see: P. Thomas,
‘Socio-Legal Studies: The Case of Disappearing Fleas and Bustards’ in Socio-Legal
Studies ed. P. Thomas (1997) 2–3; P. Hillyard, ‘What is socio-legal studies?’ ESRC
Review of Socio-Legal Studies (1993).
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