SOCIOLOGY AND LAW

Prof. Deepshikha Agarwal

BALLB Batch 2020
RELATION BETWEEN SOCIETY
AND LAW
⦿There occurs a close relationship between
society and law, which is mutual and
interdependent.
⦿Society is regulated by certain means of
social control, and law plays a very
important role is this respect.
⦿Law in turn is determined by society, its
norms and morals.
⦿Society is the larger system, and law is a
sub- system existing within society.
⦿Type of legal system changes as type of
society changes- Emile Durkheim.
◼ Simple societies have repressive laws,
◼ complex societies have restitutive laws
⦿Changes in society bring out changes in law
⦿Laws for abolishing
◼ Sati Pratha,
◼ child marriage
◼ brought about reformative changes in Indian
Society during British period.
⦿Changes in society bring out changes in law
⦿Laws for abolishing Sati Pratha, child
marriage brought about as Indian society
went through reformative changes under
leadership of few leaders during British
period.
⦿Law brings changes in Society-
◼ positive discrimination policies in India,
◼ laws against domestic violence.

Law is tool of social engineering- Roscoe

Pound
⦿Laws are based on social norms, traditions-
◼ personal laws,
◼ family laws
◼ Sociological school of jurisprudence
◼ Customary laws
⦿More acceptability of those laws which are in
consonance with social norms- laws that are
against the norms, morals of society face
opposition.
⦿Still, state lays down laws against social
norms for larger benefit of society.
RELATION BETWEEN SOCIOLOGY AND LAW

⦿Since sociology deals with the study of society,

there occurs a close relationship between
sociology and law as well.
⦿Sociology helps in understanding how do the
larger social system and the legal sub- system
function.
⦿Sociological studies of law may pertain to the
study of the relation between law and society at
◼ micro-structural level (which would involve study of
specific topics), or
◼ at the macro-structural level (which involves the
study of larger institutions, or the study of the legal
system as a whole).
⦿The common overlapping areas between
sociology and law have given rise to
◼ socio- legal studies, where the sub- field of law
tends to analyze the social dimension of law.
◼ Sociology of Law- field within Sociology
⦿Relevance of works of Emile Durkheim, Karl
Mar, Max Weber, Bronslaw Kasper Malinoswki
and Maine in studying law from social
perspective.
⦿Maurice Hariou - “Too little sociology leads
away from law, but much sociology leads
back to it”.
⦿George Gurvitch - “ a little law leads away
from sociology but much law leads back to
it”.
⦿sociological methods of research become
relevant and indispensable for law.
⦿Use of sociological methods in the study of
legal system can highlight
◼ the elements of human factor,
◼ the biases or prejudices,
◼ the social background,
◼ the personal traits of the lawyers/ judges
involved in the various cases.
⦿Empirical research,
⦿Modern law institutions hold workshops to
help law students, faculties and professionals
to have a theoretical and practical
understanding of the sociological empirical
methods.
⦿Used to study
◼ customary law,
◼ level of accessibility of the legal system,
◼ social basis of law and in the area of jury
studies.
⦿Experimental methods involve use of mock
juries, mock trials and shadow jury.
◼ mock juries listen to the tapes or read the
manuscripts from the actual trials. In some
cases,
◼ mock trials have been staged, complete with
courtrooms and lawyers.
◼ shadow jury involves a second jury that sits on
the actual trials and decides the case.
⦿Results thus obtained can be easily
compared and can lead to important
implications.
⦿Apart from using these qualitative methods,
the socio-legal experts are also using
quantitative methods in an extensive
manner.
⦿More focus on the small survey studies.
RELEVANCE OF SOCIOLOGY
FOR LAW
⦿Sociological understanding of law provided
deeper perspective to law.
⦿Helps in understanding the functioning of
society and how informal (customs, morals)
or formal (laws) regulate the functioning of
the society generally.
⦿It helps in analysing the manner in which the
formal and informal rules are laid down and
applied – this is important for the legal
studies.
⦿Studying the capacity and limits of law in
regulating human behavior
⦿Can help in Studying the working of the trial
courts, role of lawyers, judges, police,
prosecutors etc.
⦿Studying the influence of general
background of judges, lawyers and legal
experts in deciding cases.
⦿Focus on role of judges and lawyers as social
engineers who pave the development of
society in a particular direction.
⦿Thus, Indian constitution paves the ground
for a secular and socialist state and the laws
in India are laid down in this effect.
⦿Indian laws protect the unity of the Indian
society and also help in retaining the identity
of each community by providing freedom to
the people to follow their own culture.
⦿Helps in studying law as a product of social
customs and law as a source of social
change;
⦿Helps in studying the influence of law on the
decision-making tendency of individuals;
⦿Helps in understanding how best can law be
used to advance individual and social
development;
⦿Helps in the study of social deviance and
crime
◼ Juvenile delinquency
◼ Domestic violence
◼ Sexual offences
⦿Sociology studies various social issues
generally and explores social problems
◼ - goes into the cause of and features of the
social problems
⦿Thus provides deeper understanding of crime
and deviance in society
⦿Study of social change-
⦿useful for legal experts and professional as there
occurs a mutual and clear relation between change in
society and change in law.
⦿Any change in society is reflected in legal system
◼ acceptance of rights of the third gender, LGBT
community for instance and
⦿Any change in the law produces change in
society
⦿(Divorce law under Hindu Law lays down
grounds for divorce and makes divorce easy.
🞆 This has lead to increased divorce rate in society, culminating in
higher incidence of broken/ incomplete families and also higher
incidence of crime in society).
⦿ Context of legislating abortion laws the Civil rights
movement in America
⦿In India, neither social scientists nor law
persons explicitly concerned with the
emergence of a discipline of sociology of law.
⦿Much talk of law and social change around,
but no sustained attempts at examining the
potential and actual role of legal processes
to initiation and attainment of social change.
⦿In terms of legal education and research,
there are clear indications of growing
appreciation of the social roles of legal
processes and institutions.
⦿Relevant works
◼ Marc Galantar
◼ Upendra Baxi
◼ K L Sharma