Sociology of Law

La question du «choix» dans la décision de se marier ou non au Québec

by Hélène Belleau

Belleau, H. et P. Cornut-St-Pierre (2011), Lien social et politiques, no. 66, p.65-89.

R É S U M É | A B S T R AC T

In the debate over whether or not legislation is needed to regulate... more R É S U M É | A B S T R AC T

In the debate over whether or not legislation is needed to regulate common-law marriage, Quebec lawmakers have so far maintained that it is important to preserve the free choice of individuals who wish to live together outside the institution of
marriage. This position rests on four premises regarding the “choice” that couples make when they decide to marry or not – premises that are not based on any empirical findings. Taking into consideration the views of couples on married life
and applying concepts from the sociology of law such as internormativity, legal consciousness and efficacy of legislation, this paper shows that the decision to marry or not is in fact founded on reasons and norms that often have no legal basis,
and that the reference to “common-law” status in social and tax legislation perpetuates the widespread but mistaken belief that couples in common-law relationships, after living together for a few years or having a child together, enjoy a status or protection equivalent to that of married couples.

Dans le débat sur la pertinence d’un encadrement légal de l’union libre, le législateur québécois a jusqu’à maintenant soutenu l’importance de préserver le libre choix des individus qui souhaitent vivre en dehors des cadres du mariage. Un tel argument repose sur quatre postulats quant au « choix » que font les couples lorsqu’ils prennent la décision de se marier ou non, postulats qui ne sont étayés par aucune étude empirique. En tenant compte du point de vue des couples sur la vie conjugale et à l’aide de notions de sociologie du droit telles l’internormativité, la conscience du droit et l’effectivité des lois, l’article montre que la décision des couples de se marier ou non repose en fait sur des motifs et des normes qui n’ont souvent rien de juridique, et que l’imposition d’un statut de « conjoint de fait » par les lois sociales et fiscales entretient la perception répandue mais erronée selon laquelle les conjoints de fait jouiraient, après quelques années de vie commune ou la naissance d’un enfant, d’un statut et d’une protection équivalents à ceux des couples mariés.

The Impossible Mission: Global Justice Movement Against Transnational Organized Crime

by Baris Cayli

Cayli, Baris (2012) ''The Impossible Mission: Global Justice Movement against Transnational Organized Crime'' New Global Studies Vol:6 No:1

This article argues that the best counterattack against globally oriented transnational organized crime (TOC) is by a... more This article argues that the best counterattack against globally oriented transnational organized crime (TOC) is by a global response. The contribution of participating states and the creation of a collective identity against TOC are both necessary. This creation would be more effective through transnational social movements. Therefore, activating the global justice movement (GJM) against TOC would be a significant achievement. This has not yet taken place for both structural and ideological reasons which are on the surface quite rational. If GJM activists create a more unified movement, however, and adhere more strictly to non-violence as have other social movements like the Libera anti-Mafia association of Italy and Flare Network of Europe, there is potential for convergence.

Unifikacja europejskiego prawa prywatnego z perspektywy społeczeństwa polskiego – przyczynek do dyskusji

by Rafał Mańko

(2008) 2 Nowa Europa 35

Autonomia, neutralność, indyferentność moralna prawa w kontekście jego uspołecznienia [Autonomy, neutrality, moral indifference of law in context of socialized law] (DRAFT)

by Michał Dudek

Paper presented at the 14th Polish Sociological Congress, in the 4th Forum of Sociologists of Law „Public Sphere – Functions, Dysfunctions, Official and Unofficial Norms”, September 8-11, 2010, Krakow, Poland.

Publication scheduled for the beginning of 2013.

Publication details: to be announced.

This paper is an attempt to look at concept of moral neutrality/autonomy of law from socio-legal perspective,... more This paper is an attempt to look at concept of moral neutrality/autonomy of law from socio-legal perspective, emphasizing the ideal of socialized law. Notion of moral indifference of law is helpful in argumentation. It is shown that moral neutrality/autonomy of law is highly problematic, e.g. it is not specified toward whose and which morality should the legislator be neutral and is it even possible to be characterized by such attitude. Focus is placed on the issue that neutral motives not always result in neutral law. It justifies view that neutrality/autonomy is make-believe, leads to manipulation in legislation process and formation of questionable unofficial norms. Assuming that every law can be treated by its addressees as oppressive, the best way to prevent it is to aim at socialized law.

Artykuł jest próbą spojrzenia na koncepcję neutralności/autonomii moralnej prawa z socjologiczno-prawnej perspektywy, akcentując ideał prawa uspołecznionego. Pojęcie indyferentności moralnej prawa jest pomocne w argumentacji. Wykazuje się, że neutralność/autonomia moralna prawa jest wysoce problematyczna, np. nie jest określone wobec czyjej i jakiej moralności ustawodawca powinien być neutralny, a także czy w ogóle może on charakteryzować się taką postawą. Uwagę skupia się na tym, że neutralne motywy nie zawsze skutkują w neutralnym prawie. Usprawiedliwia to opinię, że neutralność/autonomia jest fasadowa, prowadzi do manipulacji w procesie ustawodawczym i wykształcenia się łatwych do zakwestionowania norm nieoficjalnych. Przyjmując, że każde prawo może być traktowane przez swoich adresatów jako opresyjne, najlepszym sposobem przeciwdziałania temu jest dążenie do uspołecznionego prawa.

Czy powinniśmy karać nienawiść? Uwagi o koncepcji przestępstw z nienawiści [Should we punish hate? Remarks about the concept of hate crimes]

by Michał Dudek

Published in: „Forum Prawnicze” ["Legal Forum"] 2012, no. 1 (9), pp. 33-47. ISSN 2081-688X

O psychologicznej reaktancji i jej możliwych implikacjach dla polityki prawa karnego [On psychological reactance and it’s possible implications for the policy of criminal law]

by Michał Dudek

Published in: „Czasopismo Prawa Karnego i Nauk Penalnych” ["Journal of Criminal Law and Penal Sciences"] 2011, no. 4, pp. 125-135. ISSN 1506-1817

Czy każda kultura zasługuje na obronę? Kilka wątpliwości dotyczących cultural defence i prawa karnego w dobie multikulturalizmu [Does every culture deserves a defence? Few queries concerning cultural defence and criminal law in the age of multiculturalism]

by Michał Dudek

Published in: „Archiwum Filozofii Prawa i Filozofii Społecznej” ["Archives for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy" Polish edition] 2011, no. 2 (3), pp. 47-60. ISSN 2082-3304

Paternalistic Regulations Expressed through Means of Visual Communication of Law? Contribution to Another Distinction of Paternalistic Legal Regulations

by Michał Dudek

Published in: Michał Araszkiewicz, Matěj Myška, Terezie Smejkalová, Jaromír Šavelka, Martin Škop (eds.), "Argumentation 2011. International Conference on Alternative Methods of Argumentation in Law. Conference Proceedings", MUNI Press, Brno 2011, pp. 167-179. ISBN 978-80-210-5579-7

The aim of this article is to outline the issue of paternalistic legal regulations being expressed through means of... more The aim of this article is to outline the issue of paternalistic legal regulations being expressed through means of visual communication of law, such as often used in legal realm “optical signs, which are not expressions of ethnic written language”, that is, through traffic signs. Main focus is placed on one particular prohibitory traffic sign, “no entry” sign, which often is placed at the exit ends of one-way streets to determine traffic direction. On the one hand, this analysis can be treated as a specific attempt to supplement the debate on legal paternalism. Namely, it stresses the issue of characteristic features of danger, risk of harm justifying given legal regulation, which restricts its addressees’ liberty, whether to “protect (...) from self-inflicted harm or (...) to guide them (...) toward their own good”. It is proposed to distinguish two kinds of danger underlying paternalistic regulations: so-called “natural” danger and so-called “conventionally-made” danger. Apart from this, the problem of visual communication through traffic signs is outlined.

Control y observación del Poder Judicial: la publicización de las acciones y trayectorias de los jueces del Supremo Tribunal Federal

by Fernando Filgueiras

Chapter published in GARAVITO, César (ed.) "El Derecho en América Latina". Buenos Aires: Siglo Veintuno Editores, 2011.

Cheliotis, L. K. and S. Xenakis (2011) ‘Crime, Fear of Crime and Punitiveness’, in L. K. Cheliotis and S. Xenakis (eds) Crime and Punishment in Contemporary Greece: International Comparative Perspectives, pp. 1-43. Bern: Peter Lang AG. (With a response by Jonathan Jackson, Monica Gerber and Carolyn Côté-Lussier, pp. 45-64).

by Leonidas Cheliotis

Over the last the three decades, punitiveness on the part of the state in Greece in the field of law and order has... more Over the last the three decades, punitiveness on the part of the state in Greece in the field of law and order has been on the ascent. The most obvious indicator of this has been the steeply rising use of imprisonment. A striking accompaniment of state punitiveness has been punitive public opinion. As soon as one broaches the question of why this is the case, however, one is confronted with at least two puzzling findings. First, the prevalence of crime has only risen modestly, in sharp disproportion to the high recorded levels of fear of criminal victimisation, of distrust in the police and judicial authorities, and of public punitiveness. And second, fear of criminal victimisation itself does not axiomatically bear a positive correlation with expressed public support for state punitiveness, though it does predict lack of confidence in criminal justice authorities. This chapter sets out to review these contradictions and the limits of available explanations. We begin by outlining the different ways in which Greece’s authoritarian past and the dictatorship of 1967-1974 in particular are thought to have influenced state and public punitiveness in the years that have followed. The next section summarises scholarly and commercial research on the levels and patterns of fear of crime and public punitiveness in contemporary Greece, as both distinct and interrelated themes. Attention is then drawn to the disconnect between crime and imprisonment rates as an illustrative example of the irrational foundations of state punitiveness and its degree of public support; a disconnect that is all the more prominent when examined with reference to the nationality of prisoners. Taking inspiration from political economies of punishment in jurisdictions elsewhere, the remainder of the chapter points to state deployment of a law-and-order discourse and the use of punishment as symbolic devices by which social insecurities, generated in large part by the state itself, are displaced and discharged onto suitably weak subsections of the population.

Reassembling the Legal

by Richard Mohr

Co-authored with Francesco Contini, Research Institute on Judicial Systems (IRSIG-CNR), Bologna.
Published as:
Mohr, R. and Contini, F. 2011. 'Reassembling the Legal: "The wonders of modern science" in court-related proceedings'. 20 Griffith Law Review 4: 994-1019.

The article analyses the ways in which technology and law disperse, channel and reassemble agency in ICT enabled legal... more The article analyses the ways in which technology and law disperse, channel and reassemble agency in ICT enabled legal proceedings. It works from case studies of online civil claims in England and Italy, and automatically issued speed camera process in Australia. Information and communication technologies affect legal procedures in three dimensions: legitimacy, efficacy and performativity. The law can legitimate ensembles of technological and performative procedures, but it cannot construct them by regulation. Technology is a distinct regulative regime that opens some channels of communication while closing others. Machines and software codes identify and admit participants and direct human activity. The focus on the performative explores the requirements of sense making, by which participants recognise the context and the legal consequences of ICT enabled procedures. The interfaces of law and technology rely on the interpretive context in which messages are understood as well as the legal forms in which they are transmitted. Each of these elements is essential to the circulation of agency between people and things that reassembles and constitutes legal and social relationships.

Political Theology Today: The Oath and Electronics

by Richard Mohr

Keynote address, 'Ceremonies of Law', Conference of the Law Literature and Humanities Association of Australasia and the Law and Society Association of Australia and New Zealand. University of Wollongong, 8 December 2011

In current socio-legal scholarship there are two dominant, perhaps competing, paradigms that explain how law comes to... more In current socio-legal scholarship there are two dominant, perhaps competing, paradigms that explain how law comes to life: discipline and political theology. I consider criteria for judging discipline and political theology as alternate or complementary paradigms: theory, morality, history, ontology and technology. As mechanisms that enact or enliven law, both paradigms can be studied as techniques of authority. Surveillance has obvious contemporary relevance, from CCTV to Facebook. I plan to redress the balance by updating the study of political theology.

How do the ceremonies of political theology work in the twenty-first century? While discipline depends on surveillance, political theology is characterised by display. Kantorowicz showed the theological and medieval origins of sovereign display. How is display relevant in a democracy? Leaders manage their images in representing the 'sovereign people'. The people are represented, en masse (demonstrations) or in micro (identity documents, appearing before the law).

I then consider the theological origins of the oath, and explore its current operation in post-Christian court rituals and electronic media.The final part of the paper considers the role of technology and political theology in the ruin of Marcus Einfeld, the former judge who swore a number of false statements in response to camera-initiated speeding infringements. The case study shows that the ontological and performative foundations of contemporary guarantees of truthfulness survive their transfer from overtly theological technologies–the hand on the Bible–to entirely secular ones–the signature, the media release and the television interview.

Traduction Mark Osiel, « Dialogue avec les dictateurs: la résistance judiciaire en Argentine et au Brésil »

by David Samson

« Dialogue avec les dictateurs: la résistance judiciaire en Argentine et au Brésil »

Traduction commentée d'un extrait de Mark J. Osiel


« Dialogue with Dictators: Judicial Resistance in Argentina and Brazil »

Publié in Law & Social Inquiry, vol. 20, n°2 (spring 1995), p.481-560 (traduction de p.542-560)

The Under-Complexity of Democracy

by Poul F. Kjaer

SOZIOLOGISCHE JURISPRUDENZ FESTSCHRIFT FÜR GUNTHER TEUBNER, Gralf-Peter Calliess, Andreas Fischer-Lescano, Dan Wielsch, Peer Zumbansen, Hrsg., pp. 531 - 42, Berlin: De Gruyter-Verlag, 2009

Gunther Teubner has raised the question of "What comes after the state?" Behind the question lies the... more Gunther Teubner has raised the question of "What comes after the state?" Behind the question lies the insight that society is currently undergoing deep structural transformations in the sense that state-centered society, which was a strong characteristic of 19th and 20th century society, is fading away at the same time as new forms of trans-national structures continuously gain in importance. One of the many consequences of this development is, seemingly, that the political system is no longer capable of serving as the primary "partner" of the legal system, thereby reducing the impact of democratic decision-making on the legal system. Teubner`s theory of reflexive law thus needs to be complemented by a theory of reflexive politics.

Law of the Worlds - Towards an Inter-Systemic Theory

by Poul F. Kjaer

PP 159 - 75 in Stefan Keller und Stefan Wiprächtiger (Hrsg.): Recht zwischen Dogmatik und Theorie. Marc Amstutz zum 50. Geburtstag (Zürich: Dike Verlag, 2012) .

Departing from systems theory, Marc Amstutz has developed a refined theory of world law. In the course of developing... more Departing from systems theory, Marc Amstutz has developed a refined theory of world law. In the course of developing this theory he has, however, reformulated or changed the status of a number of central system theoretical concepts, including the concepts of (co-)evolution, interpenetration and function. At first glance, these changes appear to be relatively inconsequential but at second glance they amount to a radical reformulation of systems theory because the focus is systematically shifted away from system internal processes and towards inter-systemic processes. Although Amstutz departs from a legal perspective, his theory is in fact projecting a mirror image of the wider society. Amstutz has, in other words, not just developed a theory of world law, but rather a central contribution to a novel inter-systemic theory of society as such.

Il lavoratore extracomunitario in Italia. Legittimità del soggiorno e modalità di inserimento - Andrea Villa -

by Andrea Villa

Andrea Villa. Il lavoratore extracomunitario in Italia. Legittimità del soggiorno e modalità di inserimento, in "Economia & Lavoro", n. 02-2009. pp. 25-40. (ISSN 0012-978X)

Il lavoro sta indubbiamente attraversando una delle fasi più delicate ed incerte della sua storia. Le asimmetrie che... more Il lavoro sta indubbiamente attraversando una delle fasi più delicate ed incerte della sua storia. Le asimmetrie che scaturiscono dalle varie legislazioni e gli effetti dell'attuale congiuntura economica sembrano rappresentare due degne cause di questa situazione. In questo quadro, il saggio si inserisce nel dibattito con un'analisi della condizione giuridica dello straniero extracomunitario regolare e sulle relative modalità di inserimento nel mercato del lavoro italiano. Da questa prospettiva emerge, con chiarezza, una concezione eccessivamente utilitaristica di queste persone. Il rischio è, infatti, quello di "gettare", con troppa rapidità, migliaia di questi lavoratori in una condizione di clandestinità; migliaia da aggiungere alla già significativa porzione di persone che vivono in uno stato di esclusione giuridica. Anche in questo contesto, quindi, il nesso tra democrazia e lavoro appare sempre più come un miraggio lontano.

Eugen Ehrlich's "Living Law" and its Legacy for Legal Pluralism

by Sahib Singh

Working Paper

Forthcoming perhaps in Journal of Legal Pluralism

This short comment paper evaluates Ehrlich's contribution to the modern and powerful legal theory of legal pluralism.... more This short comment paper evaluates Ehrlich's contribution to the modern and powerful legal theory of legal pluralism. With the theory finding stature in the current rhetoric of fragmentation in international legal relations, this paper explores the central tenet of one of the theory's founding fathers. It examines the value of Ehrlich's "living law" in the development of legal pluralism and in particular the role it plays in the modern conceptualisation of the theory.

Two Potential Paths Forward from Fragmentation Discourse - Sociology and Ethics

by Sahib Singh

Proceedings of the 105th American Society of International Law Conference (2011) (forthcoming)

This was an extremely short paper prepared for the American Society of International Law Conference 2011.
more This was an extremely short paper prepared for the American Society of International Law Conference 2011.

It addresses three points: (1) the emergence of uncertainty in the utopian systemic ideals for international law - that we have seen form in the fragmentation discourse; (2) the value of sociological inquiry into tribunalisation: treating fragmentation for what it is: far more than an issue concerned with norms; and (3) the value of ethical inquiry: re-examining the role of international lawyers in light of arguable professional fragmentation.

It advocates a call for (2) and (3), nothing more.

Michel Foucault. Le istituzioni giuridiche tra produzione del sapere e sistemi di potere

by Giuseppe Campesi

Published in: Campesi Giuseppe, Pupolizio Ivan, Riva Nicola (eds.), Diritto e teoria sociale. Introduzione al pensiero socio-giuridico contemporaneo, Carocci, Roma, 2009, pp. 93-129

Norma, normatività, normalizzazione. Un itinerario teorico tra Canguilhem e Foucault

by Giuseppe Campesi

Published in: “Sociologia del Diritto”, XXXV, 2, 2008, pp. 5-30

This essay aims at exploring the theoretical implications for the foucauldian research project of some key concepts... more This essay aims at exploring the theoretical implications for the foucauldian research project of some key concepts developed by Georges Canguilhem. Namely the concept of «norms», «normativity», and «normalization». I believe these concepts crucial for understanding the development of the genealogical project on which Michel Foucault embarked during the Seventies, and particularly for obtaining a deeper understanding of the idea of disciplinary power as part of the broader biopolitical project. This preliminary conceptual exploration between Canguilhem and Foucault, will also provide some useful theoretical tools to better understand the position of the legal phenomenon within the foucauldian genealogy of modern power.