Sociology of Law

2020/2021

Academic Year

ENG

Instruction in English

3

ECTS credits

Delivered at:

School of Sociology

Course type:

Elective course

When:

2 year, 4 module

Instructors

Kosals, Leonid

Resheteeva, Regina

Course Syllabus

Abstract

It is introductory course depicting law and society from the standpoint of sociology. The aim of the course to show students various ways of thinking about law as a social phenomenon and introduce them to major contemporary topics and debates in the field of sociology of law in relation with the tradition of the discipline. The wide range of themes will be discussed, including social control, law and culture, legal profession, the role of law in various institutions such as economy and politics, legality and legitimacy, rule of law.

Learning Objectives

• Providing students with the theoretical knowledge about sociological understanding of the law and legal institutions
• Teaching students to use basic analytical tools for study law in everyday life in connection to social order and informality

Expected Learning Outcomes

• Student knows the main concepts in social science theories of law; and develops insight into the relationships between law and society
• Student develops critical reading, thinking, skills for the analysis of sociolegal phenomena
• Student develops critical reading and thinking skills for the analysis of sociolegal phenomena

Course Contents

• Theme 1-2. History and theoretical foundations of sociology of law
  Students will explore the history theoretical perspectives on the role of law in society. Law in classical social theories (Weber, Durkheim, Marx, Elias, Malinowski, Petrazycki, Sorokin, Ehrlich, Pound, Llewellyn, Parsons).
• Theme 3. Relationship between law and society
  Students are introduced to major contemporary theories. Theoretical frameworks on how society shapes the law. Gap between the law on the books and the law in action. “Law in action” tradition and critical perspective of legal realism. Law in context approach.
• Theme 4. Why people obey the law?
  Social norms: various approaches. Social and legal norms. The rule of law as a social norm. Legality and legitimacy. Procedural justice and legitimacy. Law, sanctions and social control. Would many people obey non-coercive law?
• Theme 5. Human Rights in sociological perspective
  Human rights and citizenship in sociological interpretation. Institutional, social, and moral preconditions for human recognition and inclusion. Human rights and state. Violations of human rights. Social movements and human rights. Rights of social minorities. Children’s rights in contemporary society.
• Theme 6-8. Legal culture
  Typology and variety of legal cultures. Empirical studies of legal culture in the Anglo-Saxon world, Europe and Asia. Legal consciousness as an analytic concept. Challenges of legal pluralism. Conservatism of legal culture. Law and social change.
• Theme 9-10. Law in Everyday Life
  How people understand law? How the law sustains its institutional power despite a persistent gap between the law on the books and the law in action. When, where, and under what circumstances do citizens turn to law? Reliance on the legal system.
• Theme 11. Gender and law
  Sexual identity and law. Feminist jurisprudence and feminist legal theory. Are women always and everywhere less likely than men to commit criminal act? Female crime and the gender gap in crime.
• Theme 12. Law and crime.
  Contemporary trends in crime. Violent crimes and property crimes. Latent crime. Understanding Criminal Behavior. Criminal career. Trajectories of offending. Criminal recidivism. Youth crime.
• Theme 13. Professions of Law
  Professionalism as a form of legal practice. Career in a legal profession. Professional community in the legal profession. Hierarchy and stratification in the legal profession. Norms of professional behavior.
• Theme 14-16. Socio-legal studies in Russia
  Russian legal tradition and legal culture. Problems of the Russian legal system (telephone law, sentencing disparities, accusatorial bias, wrongful conviction, corruption). Russian legal system and the rule of law: are changes needed?

Assessment Elements

• In-class activity
• In-class presentation
  Student should present his or her analysis of a theoretical or empirical article. Presentation contains the statement of the main author’s arguments and the student’s critical analysis of the text. The critical analysis means that the students try to develop their own arguments about the author's points. The students can use the other research texts (articles, books etc.), knowledge that they have from the other courses, their own previous research experience if they have any, statistics and facts that they have in hands etc. The students can incorporate their own experiences/thoughts in the critical analysis. Presentation is up to 10-15 minutes with follow-up group discussion. List of articles will be provided.
• Final exam
  The exam will be held in an open-book format, meaning that you can use materials that we've discussed during our classes. The idea behind this kind of exam is to show us how you can make sense of the particular situation from a theoretical point of view. Students will receive a link to google forms via email just before the start of the exam. Students are expected to write a mini-essay, reflecting on a particular case using concepts and theories from our course. You will be able to choose the case from 2-3 options. You should submit your answer within the 1-hour and upload your work in google forms. But we strongly advise you to type in your answer in Word/Pages or similar program and to save the text regularly to minimize the risk of technical issues. Plagiarism is unacceptable: in such case the results of the exam will be canceled.
• Essay
  Two options for the essay are offered to the students. First, the interview-based essay. The students have to conduct 1-2 interviews with people who had (or are experiencing now) an encounter with law/ any legal institution: judiciary police, penal system etc. The respondents can be in roles of victim, bystander, perpetrator etc. In doing this, the students should develop a guide for the interview, find the respondents, interview them, and make a recording, to turn it into the text, and then analyze it and write-up the essay. The students should consult the professors in all stages of making field study. Second, the research essay. The aim of the research essay is a student’s training in the analysis of the operation of a legal institution (court, police, etc.) based on academic literature. As such, students have to make the imposing list of relevant academic publications for a studied topic. The list has to include both theoretical and empirical publications. Read more about strategies of essay writing: https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/strategies-essay-writing
• Essay outline
  Essay outline is a detailed plan of final essay (1-2 pages). Outline helps to arrange a clear structure and sort arguments. Essay outline contains problem statement and research question (what is your essay about?), brief theoretical overview (how you are planning to answer your research question?) and primary elements of analysis (what data you are going to use?). After paper submission students will receive comments and feedback.
• In-class activity
• In-class presentation
  Student should present his or her analysis of a theoretical or empirical article. Presentation contains the statement of the main author’s arguments and the student’s critical analysis of the text. The critical analysis means that the students try to develop their own arguments about the author's points. The students can use the other research texts (articles, books etc.), knowledge that they have from the other courses, their own previous research experience if they have any, statistics and facts that they have in hands etc. The students can incorporate their own experiences/thoughts in the critical analysis. Presentation is up to 10-15 minutes with follow-up group discussion. List of articles will be provided.
• Final exam
  The exam will be held in an open-book format, meaning that you can use materials that we've discussed during our classes. The idea behind this kind of exam is to show us how you can make sense of the particular situation from a theoretical point of view. Students will receive a link to google forms via email just before the start of the exam. Students are expected to write a mini-essay, reflecting on a particular case using concepts and theories from our course. You will be able to choose the case from 2-3 options. You should submit your answer within the 1-hour and upload your work in google forms. But we strongly advise you to type in your answer in Word/Pages or similar program and to save the text regularly to minimize the risk of technical issues. Plagiarism is unacceptable: in such case the results of the exam will be canceled.
• Essay
  Two options for the essay are offered to the students. First, the interview-based essay. The students have to conduct 1-2 interviews with people who had (or are experiencing now) an encounter with law/ any legal institution: judiciary police, penal system etc. The respondents can be in roles of victim, bystander, perpetrator etc. In doing this, the students should develop a guide for the interview, find the respondents, interview them, and make a recording, to turn it into the text, and then analyze it and write-up the essay. The students should consult the professors in all stages of making field study. Second, the research essay. The aim of the research essay is a student’s training in the analysis of the operation of a legal institution (court, police, etc.) based on academic literature. As such, students have to make the imposing list of relevant academic publications for a studied topic. The list has to include both theoretical and empirical publications. Read more about strategies of essay writing: https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/strategies-essay-writing
• Essay outline
  Essay outline is a detailed plan of final essay (1-2 pages). Outline helps to arrange a clear structure and sort arguments. Essay outline contains problem statement and research question (what is your essay about?), brief theoretical overview (how you are planning to answer your research question?) and primary elements of analysis (what data you are going to use?). After paper submission students will receive comments and feedback.

Interim Assessment

• Interim assessment (4 module)
  0.2 * Essay + 0.1 * Essay outline + 0.3 * Final exam + 0.25 * In-class activity + 0.15 * In-class presentation

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Ewick, P., & Silbey, S. (2003). Narrating Social Structure: Stories of Resistance to Legal Authority. American Journal of Sociology, 108(6), 1328. https://doi.org/10.1086/378035
• Gender and Crime. (2014). Annual Review of Sociology, 2013(39), 291–308. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-071312-145605
• Hendley, K. (2009). “Telephone Law” and the “Rule of Law”: The Russian Case. Hague Journal on the Rule of Law, 1(2), 241–262. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1876404509002413
• Kostiner, I. (2003). Evaluating Legality: Toward a Cultural Approach to the Study of Law and Social Change. Law & Society Review, 37(2), 323–368. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-5893.3702006
• Liu, S. (2015). Law’s Social Forms: A Powerless Approach to the Sociology of Law. Law & Social Inquiry, 40(1), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1111/lsi.12105
• Merry, S. E., & Goodale, M. (2007). The Practice of Human Rights : Tracking Law Between the Global and the Local. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=206825
• Mrowczynski, R. (2016). Institutional professionalization of lawyers in state-socialism and post-socialism: Poland and Russia compared. International Journal of the Legal Profession, 23(2), 157–184. https://doi.org/10.1080/09695958.2015.1133421
• Nelken, D. (2004). Using the Concept of Legal Culture. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.31E65C16
• Nelken, D. (2016). Comparative Legal Research and Legal Culture: Facts, Approaches, and Values. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.8F7BCF4E
• Sampson, R. J., & Laub, J. H. (1992). Crime and Deviance in the Life Course. Annual Review of Sociology, 18, 63–84. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.so.18.080192.000431
• Steffensmeier, D., & Allan, E. (1996). GENDER AND CRIME: Toward a Gendered Theory of Female Offending. Annual Review of Sociology, 22, 459. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.22.1.459
• Volkov, V. (2016). Legal and Extralegal Origins of Sentencing Disparities: Evidence from Russia’s Criminal Courts. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, 13(4), 637–665. https://doi.org/10.1111/jels.12128

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Gray, G. C. (2013). Insider Accounts of Institutional Corruption: Examining the Social Organization of Unethical Behaviour. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.812577C
• Gregg, B. G. (2012). Human Rights As Social Construction. Cambridge, [U.K.]: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=416702
• Hendley, K., & Murrell, P. (2015). Revisiting the emergence of the rule of law in Russia. Global Crime, 16(1), 19–33. https://doi.org/10.1080/17440572.2014.959328
• Merry, S. E. (1992). Anthropology, Law, and Transnational Processes. Annual Review of Anthropology, 21(1), 357–379. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.an.21.100192.002041
• van der Vet, F. (2018). “When They Come for You”: Legal Mobilization in New Authoritarian Russia. Law & Society Review, 52(2), 301–336. https://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12339