The Oldest Social Science?: Configurations of Law and ModernityThis book looks critically at some of the underlying assumptions which shape our current understanding of the role and purpose of law and society. It focuses on adjudication as a social practice and as a set of governmental techniques. From this vantage point, it explores how the relationship between law, government and society has changed in the course of history in significant ways. At the centre of the argument is the elaboration of the notion of `adjudicative government'. From this perspective it is argued that the relationship between law and society must be conceived in a different way in the era of economics, sociology and statistics. The impact of these disciplines both constitutes `modernity' and unfolds a different role for law. The author argues that the traditional vision of the role of law, rooted in a complex set of hierarchical assumptions, is no longer adequate. |
Contents
The Measure of the | 1 |
The Penetrative Scheme and | 8 |
Max Weber and his Legacy | 37 |
The Legal Science of Society and Adjudicative Government | 77 |
Tradition Textuality and History | 93 |
Credit | 101 |
Adjudicative Government and Social Science | 109 |
The Chimera of Social Integration | 154 |
Legal Individualism and the Ethical Space | 186 |
Conclusion | 211 |
| 221 | |
| 255 | |
| 263 | |
Common terms and phrases
adjudication administration Anthropology argument ARTURO ALVAREZ autopoiesis autopoietic become Cambridge University Press century Christianity claim common law common law tradition complex concept courts Culture decisions differentiation discourse discussion distinction domination Durkheim economic Economy and Society emergence empirical empiricism England English epistemic essays ethical space fact Foucault function Habermas hermeneutics hierarchical human ical idea increasingly individual interpretation Jacques Lacan John Maynard Keynes judges judgment knowledge language Latour law and society lawyers least legal system logic London Luhmann mass media Max Weber means measure medieval metaphor mode modern society moral nature notion operations organization Oxford penetrative scheme perhaps perspective philosophy plurality political position possible practice problem problematic professional Psychoanalysis question rational reality relation role Routledge sense social science sociology statistical structure suggest systems theory Taming of Chance thematization theories of everything thought tion trans truth vision Weber