Normativity in Legal Sociology

Normativity in Legal Sociology

ThiS is a FM Blank Page

Reza Banakar Normativity in Legal Sociology Methodological Reflections on Law and Regulation in Late Modernity

Reza Banakar Sociology of Law Lund University Lund Sweden ISBN 978-3-319-09649-0 ISBN 978-3-319-09650-6 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-09650-6 Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London Library of Congress Control Number: 2014956568 Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright Clearance Center. Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)

Acknowledgements The parts of this book which were previously published have been revised and updated before being reproduced here. In some cases, these revisions have been extensive, while in others only minor changes were deemed necessary. The author acknowledges the following for their kind permissions to use previously printed material from: Whose Experience is the Measure of Justice? in (2008) Legal Ethics 10(2): 209 222; Law Through Sociology s Looking Glass: Conflict and Competition in Sociological Studies of Law in Denis, A and Kalekin-Fishman, D (eds) (2009) The New ISA Handbook in Contemporary International Sociology: Conflict, Competition, Cooperation, London: Sage; Poetic Injustice in (2008) Retfœrd: The Nordic Journal of Law and Justice for volume 31(3): 69 90; The Politics of Legal Cultures in (2008) Retfœrd: The Nordic Journal of Law and Justice 31(4): 37 60; Power, Culture and Method in Comparative Law in International Journal of Law in Context (2009) International Journal of Law in Context 5(1): 69 85; Having One s Cake and Eating It: The Paradox of Contextualisation in Socio-Legal Research in (2011) International Journal of Law in Context 7(4): 487 503; Sociology of Law in (2011) Online Journal of International Sociological Association: Sociopedia.ISA 1 14; Driving Dangerously: Law, Culture and Driving habits in Iran in (2012) British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 39(2): 241 257; In Search of Heimat: A Note on Franz Kafka s Concept of Law in (2010) Law and Literature 23(3): 463 490; Can Legal Sociology Account for the Normativity of Law in Baier M (2013) Social and Legal Norms. Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 15 38; and Law and Regulation in Late Modernity in Banakar R and Travers M (eds) (2013) Law and Social Theory. Oxford: Hart, pp. 305 324. The author is indebted to Mark Jones for his invaluable assistance in editing the first draft of this book. Mark s editorial contributions have raised the clarity of many discussions in this book. He is also indebted to Ann Williams for painstakingly proofreading and checking the references. v

ThiS is a FM Blank Page

Contents 1 Introduction: Emerging Legal Uncertainty... 1 1 Methodology... 5 1.1 Socio-Legal Methodology........................ 5 1.2 The Separation Thesis... 9 1.3 Disembeddedness of Modern Law.... 9 1.4 The Gap Problem............................. 11 2 Uncertainty and Irrationality... 12 3 Late Modernity..... 16 References... 17 2 Conflict and Competition Between Law and Sociology... 21 1 Law and Sociology.................................. 22 1.1 Jurisprudence, Legal Studies and Legal Practice........ 22 1.2 Law as a System of Rules... 24 1.3 Rule-Based Reasoning........................... 25 1.4 The Consequences of Globalisation................. 27 1.5 Doctrinal Methodology.......................... 29 2 The Sociological Imagination.... 32 3 Can Law and Sociology Learn from Each Other?... 36 References... 38 3 Social Scientific Studies of Law... 41 1 Approaches to the Study of Law in Society.......... 41 1.1 The Sociology of Law... 42 1.2 Law and Society Studies......................... 45 1.3 Sociological Jurisprudence........................ 46 1.4 Socio-Legal Studies and Legal Policy Research........ 48 vii

viii Contents 2 Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approaches... 50 3 The Gap Problem.................................. 52 3.1 Various Forms of the Gap... 52 3.2 Alternatives to the Gap..... 54 References... 56 4 Whose Experience Is the Measure of Justice?... 59 1 The Ethical Form of Judgement....... 60 2 Law s Claim to Correctness... 63 3 The Separation Thesis...... 68 4 Reflections........................................ 69 References... 74 5 On the Paradox of Contextualisation... 77 1 Galligan s Project................................... 81 1.1 Developing Hart s Concept of Law...... 81 1.2 From Rules to Rulings........................... 81 1.3 The Social Context of Rules...... 83 1.4 Why Do We Need Legal Rules?... 85 2 Taking the Law Seriously... 87 2.1 Two Points of Disagreement...................... 87 2.2 Are Legal Rules the Focal Point of Legal Experience?... 90 2.3 The Plurality of Experiences...................... 92 3 Having One s Cake and Eating It........................ 94 References... 96 6 A Note on Franz Kafka s Concept of Law... 99 1 Heimat... 101 2 Chewing Sawdust................................... 103 3 The Castle.... 106 4 Subversion........................................ 109 5 Paradoxes..... 111 6 The Desire for Justice... 113 7 Kafka s Law... 117 References... 120 7 The Politics of Legal Cultures... 123 1 Three Case Studies on Law, Culture, Gender and Religion.... 125 1.1 The Bolsheviks Modernisation.................... 125 1.2 The Sandviken Case............................ 127 1.3 Incorporating Aspects of Sharia into UK Law...... 129 2 Monolithic and Plural Conceptions of Legal Cultures... 133 3 Living Law and Cultural Diversity....................... 137 3.1 Ehrlich s Living Law... 137 3.2 Kelsen s Critique of Ehrlich....................... 139 4 Steppenwolf... 140 References... 142

Contents ix 8 Comparative Law and Legal Cultures... 145 1 Studying Similarities or Differences?..................... 146 2 Contextualisation... 148 2.1 Contextualising Laws... 148 2.2 Rethinking Comparative Law... 151 2.3 The Politics of Difference... 153 2.4 Not Everything Is Culturally Determined............. 155 3 Towards a Meta-Methodological Framework... 157 3.1 Culture... 157 3.2 Limits of the Top-Down Approach.... 160 3.3 Combining the Top-Down and Bottom-Up Perspectives.... 161 References... 166 9 A Case-Study of Non-Western Legal Systems and Cultures... 169 1 Prologue: One Word................................. 169 2 Reckless Driving and Legal Culture... 171 3 Iranians Perceptions of Driving.............. 174 3.1 Interviews in Shiraz...... 174 3.2 Preliminary Reflections... 176 3.3 Interviews in Tehran.... 179 3.4 Driving Habits and Legal Culture................... 181 4 Iranian State, Law and Society from a Historical Perspective... 182 4.1 State and Society in Iran..... 182 4.2 Iranian Individualism..... 183 5 Epilogue: Towards a Culture of Qānon... 185 References... 186 10 The Shift to Risk Management... 189 1 Three Cases of Anti-Terrorism... 192 1.1 The Terrorist from Alva... 192 1.2 The Lyrical Terrorist.............................. 194 1.3 The Youngest British-Born Terrorist... 197 1.4 The Urge to Transgress Boundaries... 198 1.5 The Anti-Terrorism Legislation.... 199 1.6 Symbolic Effects of Anti-Terrorism Legislation.......... 201 1.7 Stop and Search Powers... 202 1.8 The Culture of Control............................ 203 1.9 The Human Rights Act..... 204 2 Islamophobia...... 206 2.1 A Growing Culture of Hostility..... 206 2.2 Alarming Rhetoric... 208 3 Constructing an Enigma... 209 4 Managerialism.... 210 References... 211

x Contents 11 Norms and Normativity in Socio-Legal Research... 215 1 Normativity... 215 1.1 Internal and External Aspects of Norms................ 215 1.2 Normativity Beyond Social Norms?...... 218 1.3 What Is Unique About the Law?... 220 2 Justice as Law s Primary Source of Normativity.............. 223 2.1 Defining Justice................................. 223 2.2 Justice as Law s Contingency Formula... 225 2.3 The Inter-Connectedness of Law and Justice............ 226 2.4 Risk Management Strategy s Normativity... 227 3 Dealing with the Normativity of Justice... 229 3.1 Facts and Values in Social and Legal Research..... 229 3.2 Scientific Methodology............................ 232 3.3 Concluding Remarks.............................. 236 References... 236 12 The Changing Horizons of Law and Regulation: From an Industrial to a Post-Industrial, Digital Society... 241 1 Law and Social Engineering in Industrial Society... 243 1.1 Classical Socio-Legal Theory...... 243 1.2 The Rise and Fall of the Welfare State................. 247 1.3 From Social Integration to Market Integration... 250 2 Ideology, Law and Technology... 252 2.1 From Telegraphy to Digital Communication... 252 2.2 Reducing the Social World to a Binary Baseline... 254 2.3 Social Media and Reflexivity......... 255 2.4 The Neo-Liberal Ideology.......................... 257 3 Law and Regulation in a Global Society..... 258 3.1 New Public Spaces and Forms of Community... 258 References... 262 13 Law and Regulation in Late Modernity... 265 1 Regulating Global Corporations?.... 266 2 Reflexivity......................................... 268 2.1 When Controlling Risks Generates More Risks........... 268 2.2 How Could They Act in Such an Unrestrained Fashion?... 271 2.3 From Community to Transitory Social Networks... 274 3 The Transformation of the State.......................... 276 3.1 A Shift to Risk Management... 278 4 Late Modern Law.... 280 4.1 When Law Loses a Clear Concept of the Social.......... 280 4.2 Using Law to Generate Uncertainty.... 281 4.3 The Possibility of Social Change...... 282 References... 285 Index... 289