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LAW THROUGH SOCIOLOGY’S LOOKING GLASS 59

Although the study of law played a signif- system of rules we find that some rules are
icant role in the formation of classical sociol- substantive while others are procedural,
ogy, law has become conspicuous only by its some regulate private transactions while
absence from recent mainstream sociological others confer powers or impose duties, and
research and teaching. Beyond its immediate so on (Galligan, 2006: 6). A similar diversity
concern, this chapter hopes to draw attention can be found in respect to the legal profes-
to law’s normative role in guiding action and sion, which consists of many groups and
shaping relationships, a role which increases individuals with different working conditions,
in sociological significance as societies tasks and aims. The working conditions and
become ethno-culturally more diverse and daily tasks of lawyers who work at large
socio-politically more complex. This chapter international law firms are, for example, a
may also be read as an attempt to show that world apart from those of the sole-practition-
mainstream sociology has more to learn from ers who provide legal services for local com-
studying law in contemporary society, than munities (Cotterrell, 1992: 184 –7).
when Durkheim famously described law as In addition, law is often seen and experi-
the ‘visible symbol’ of social solidarity enced differently by different groups in society.
(Durkheim, 1984: 24). Some see it as a source of justice, while
The discussions which will follow are lim- others experience it as a form of oppression.
ited in a number of ways. Their sources are Some regard it as an arena where marginal-
restricted to social scientific and legal produc- ized groups can struggle for their rights
tion in English and its institutional references (Banakar, 2004), while others perceive it as
and observations reflect above all the general an ideology implicated in perpetuating racial,
academic conditions in Britain. gender and class violence (Tuitt, 2005). Still
another group sees the law as an expression
and a form of social organization aimed at
facilitating interpersonal and inter-institutional
PART ONE: LAW AND SOCIOLOGY interactions and exchanges (Stjernquist,
2001). The list of the ways law is seen,
Jurisprudence, legal studies and depicted and/or experienced by various
people can be made much longer. None of
legal practice
these images of law are entirely untrue, but
Law manifests itself in different forms and at none of them by itself captures the totality of
different levels of social reality simultane- law. Fragmented as the reality of law might
ously. It is a formal instrument of regulation be, it still presents itself as a unified corpus
(i.e., a tool in the hands of policy-makers), a capable of interacting with other normative
body of rules, doctrines and decisions (i.e., a orders, such as custom and morality, without
normative system with a distinctive social apparently compromising its distinctive nor-
form and identity), a field constituted by the mative force or identity.
actions of lawyers, the judiciary and other The problems associated with the multi-
practitioners of law (i.e., an institutionalized faceted character of law that makes it socio-
form of practice), an occupational setting logically impossible to generalize about its
(i.e., a profession with a well-established iden- nature is hardly alien to jurisprudence (I use
tity and interest), an academic discipline (i.e., the term to refer to both legal theory and
scientia iuris, legal studies and jurisprudence), legal philosophy). Jurisprudence is concerned
and a form of learning, teaching and training with clarifying the general framework of
(i.e., legal education) at the same time. legal ideas and formulating general and
Focusing on any aspect of law, we discover abstract descriptions of legal systems (for a
further layers of meaning and diversity of discussion see Galligan, 2006: 7–12). Within
legal forms. For example, looking at law as a jurisprudence we find many orientations and