Volume I. Historical Development -- Law in books and law in action / Roscoe Pound -- Dispute resolution in contemporary Japan / Takeyoshi Kawashima -- The history of mainstream legal thought / Elizabeth Mensch -- The pull ob the policy audience / Austin Sarat and Susan Silbey -- 'Critical empiricism' in American legal studies : paradox, program of Pandora's box / David M. Trubek and John Esser -- Off to meet the wizard : beyond validity and reliability in the search for a post-empiricist sociology of law / Austin Sarat -- Why must legal ideas be interpreted sociologically? / Roger Cotterrell -- Blinding insights? the limits of a reflexive sociology of law / David Nelken -- Law's relationship with social science : the interdependence of theory, empirical work and social relevance in socio-legal studies / Bridget M. Hutter and Sally Lloyd-Bostock -- Law and the humanities : an uneasy relationship / Jack M. Balkin and Sanford Levinson -- Interdisciplinarity and the discipline of law / Douglas W. Vick -- Rivers of law and contested terrain : a law and society approach to economic rationality / Lauren B. Edelman -- Preface : where is law? / David Delaney, Richard T. Ford and Nicholas Blomley -- Governed by law? / Nikolas Rose and Mariana Valverde -- A new agenda for the cultural study of law : taking on the technicalities / Anelise Riles -- Introduction : how to resume the task of tracing associations / Bruno Latour -- Volume II. Methodologies and themes -- Sociological analysis of the law of vagrancy / William J. Chambliss -- A classic at 25 : reflections of Galanter's 'haves' article and work it has inspired / Richard Lempert -- The emergence and transformation of disputes : naming, blaming, claiming / William L. F. Felstiner, RIchard L. Abel and Austin Sarat -- Conclusion and implications / D. McBarnet -- 'The law is all over' : power, resistance, and the legal consciousness of the welfare poor / Austin Sarat -- The economization of politics : meta-regulation as a form of nonjudicial legality / Bronwen Morgan -- From the panopticon to Disneyworld : the development of discipline / Clifford D. Shearing and Phillip C. Stenning -- Performance-based regulation and regulatory regimes : the saga of leaky buildings / Peter J. May -- Shopping in the public realm : a law of place / Atonia Layard -- The common place of law / P. Ewick and S. Silbey -- The social construction of legality / P. Ewick and S. Silbey -- Law : a map of misreading toward a postmodern conception of law / Boaventura De Sousa Santos -- 'Atrocity stories' and professional relationships / Robert Dingwall -- Postcard from the edge (of empire) / Elizabeth Adjin-Tettey, Gillian Calder, Angela Cameron, Maneesha Deckha, Rebecca Johnson, Hester Lessard, Maureen Maloney, and Margot Young -- Discretion in a behavioral perspective : the case of a public housing eviction board / Richard Lempert -- Public protests, private lawsuits, and the market : the investor response to te McLibel case / Douglas W. Vick and Kevin Campbell -- Jurisdiction and scale : legal 'technicalities' as resources for theory / Mariana Valverde -- Volume III. Legal processes and professional groups within the legal field -- From street-level bureaucracies : how information and communication technology is transforming administrative discretion and constitutional control / Mark Bovens and Stavos Zouridis -- Street-level bureaucracy, social work and the (exaggerated) death of discretion / Tony Evans and John Harris - Discretion and power / Michael Adler and Stewart Asquith -- Remedial routines for the maintenance of contol in magistrates' courts / Pat Carlen -- Communicative participation / A. Duff, L. Farmer, S. Marshall and V. Tadros -- Settlements and the erosion of the public realm / David Luban -- Selective facilitation : some preliminary observations on a strategy used by divorce mediators / David Greatbatch and Robert Dingwall -- The possibilities and desirability of mediator neutrality : towards an ethic of partialiity / Linda Mulcahy -- Listing concentrates the mind : the English civil court as an arena for structured negotiation / Simonn Roberts -- The importance of advocacy / J. Morison and P. Leith -- Negotiation between lawyer and client in an American divorce / William F. Felstiner and Austin Sarat -- From scaffold to law court, from criminal broadsheet and biography to newspaper and novel / J. Grossman -- Magistrates' everday work and emotional labour / Sharyn Roach and Kathy Mack -- The gender of judgments : an introduction / Regina Graycar -- Merchants of law as moral entrepreneurs : constructiong international justice from te competition for transnational business disputes / Yves Dezalay and Bryant Garth -- Volume IV. Areas of Study -- Regulating risk society : stignata cases, scientitic citizenship and biomedical diplomacy / Robert G. Lee and Derek Morgan -- The regulation of xenotransplantation in te United Kingdom after UKXIRA : legal and ethical issues / Laura Williamson, Marie Fox and Sheila McLean -- The human genome diversity project : the politics of patents at the intersection of race, religin, and research ethics / Bita Amani and Rosemary J. Coombe -- Fault and liability for accidents : the accident victim's perspective / S. Lloyd-Bostock -- Flexibility in long-term contractual relationships : the role of co-operation / David Campbell and Donald Harris -- Jurisdiction and scale : rent arrears, social housing, and human rights / Dave Cowan, Caroline Hunter and Hal Pawson -- The status of status : domestic partnership and the poitics of same-sex marriage / Jonathan Goldberg-Hiller -- Family friendly? Rights, responsibilities and relationship recognition / Carl Stychin -- Beyond the public/private division : law, power and the family / Nikolas Rose -- Towards a new capitalism / S. Wheeler -- Te elusive spirit of the law : formalism and th struggle for legal control / Doreen McBarnet and Christopher Whelan -- From design to technique in global financial governance / A. Riles -- Rights and regulation as a framework for exploring reverse legal transfers : hegemony and counter-hegemony in the Bolivian water sector / Bronwen Morgan -- How to turn a beggar into a bus stop : law, traffic and the 'function of the place' / Nicholas Blomley -- Maturity and methodology : starting a debate about environmental law scholarship / Elizabeth Fisher, Bettina Lange, Eloise Scotford, and Cinnamon Carlarne.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"The thriving and well-established field of Law and Society (also referred to as Sociolegal Studies) has diverse methodological influences; it draws on social-scientific and arts-based methods. The approach of scholars researching and teaching in the field often crosses disciplinary borders, but, broadly speaking, Law and Society scholarship goes behind formalism to investigate how and why law operates, or does not operate as intended, in society. By exploring law's connections with broader social and political forces--both domestic and international-- scholars gain valuable perspectives on ideology, culture, identity, and social life. Law and Society scholarship considers both the law in contexts, as well as contexts in law. Law and Society flourishes today, perhaps as never before. Academic thinkers toil both on the mundane and the local, as well as the global, making major advances in the ways in which we think both about law and society. Especially over the last four decades, scholarly output has rapidly burgeoned, and this new title from Routledge's acclaimed Critical Concepts in Law series answers the need for an authoritative reference collection to help users make sense of the daunting quantity of serious research and thinking.Edited by the leading scholars in the field, Law and Society brings together in four volumes the vital classic and contemporary contributions. Volume I is dedicated to historical antecedents and precursors. The second volume covers methodologies and crucial themes. The third volume assembles key works on legal processes and professional groups, while the final volume of the collection focuses on substantive areas. Together, the volumes provide a one-stop 'mini library' enabling all interested researchers, teachers, and students to explore the origins of this thriving subdiscipline, and to gain a thorough understanding of where it is today"--