Subverting Orthodoxy, Making Law Central: A View of Sociolegal Studies

AuthorRoger Cotterrell
Published date01 December 2002
Date01 December 2002
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6478.00236
JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY
VOLUME 29, NUMBER 4, DECEMBER 2002
ISSN: 0263-323X, pp. 632–44
Subverting Orthodoxy, Making Law Central: A View of
Sociolegal Studies
Roger Cotterrell*
The promise of sociolegal research varies for different constituencies.
For some legal scholars it has been a promise of sustained commitment
to moral and political critique of law and to theoretical and empirical
analysis of law’s social consequences and origins. To continue to
deliver on that promise today, sociolegal studies should develop theory
in new forms emphasizing the variety of forms of regulation and the
moral foundations on which that regulation ultimately depends. It
should demonstrate and explore law’s roles in the routine structuring
of all aspects of social life and its changing character as it faces the
challenge of regulating relations of community not bounded solely by
the jurisdictional reach of nation states.
INTRODUCTION
What directions should sociolegal studies in Britain take today? To accept an
invitation to debate this issue is to risk the possibility that one’s choice of
priorities will seem bizarre or just irrelevant to others whose involvement
with the field is different. Everyone seriously concerned with sociolegal
scholarship has a view of its potential, a view coloured by ambitions or
dissatisfactions that first led to involvement with sociolegal work.
Institutional work location also affects the nature of each person’s ongoing
involvement. An important reason for the vitality of the sociolegal
community in Britain, as of the law and society community in the United
States of America, has surely been its rich, almost anarchic heterogeneity
632
ßBlackwell Publishers Ltd 2002, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA
* Department of Law, Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of
London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, England
The following papers by Professors Cotterrell and Hillyard were delivered at the Socio-
Legal Studies Association Annual Conference 2002. They were jointly commissioned for
publication in the Journal of Law and Society in order to stimulate discussion about the
nature, role, and future of socio-legal studies.

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT