Unit information: Socio-Legal Studies in 2018/19

Unit name	Socio-Legal Studies
Unit code	LAWD30122
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 4 (weeks 1-24)
Unit director	Professor. Morag McDermont
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	University of Bristol Law School
Faculty	Faculty of Social Sciences and Law

Description including Unit Aims

Socio-legal studies has emerged as an important set of diverse approaches to the study of legal phenomena over the past thirty or forty years. The general concerns of socio-legal studies are about the practical operation of law in society and how society is reflected in law. From a diverse range of disciplinary perspectives, socio-legal approaches usually do one or more of the following (all of which go well beyond traditional doctrinal analysis): 1) they study 'law in action' as opposed to 'law in the books', often emphasising the gap between the two; 2) they investigate the place of law in relation to other social institutions: for example, what is the role of law in the workplace, or how does law shape family dynamics, or what effect does law have on local government?; 3) they consider law in the context of broader social theories, for example, those of Marx, Weber, Durkheim or Foucault.

Background

This unit introduces you to a particular set of approaches to studying law as a broad social institution. It is not designed directly to increase your knowledge of any particular area of law, although you will gain some of that knowledge indirectly. Rather, it aims to help you understand how to see, analyse and research the ‘big picture’ within which law is just one piece of the puzzle, alongside social, political, economic and cultural pieces of the puzzle. You will, probably, find the subject takes a radically different starting-point to most of your other subjects, although both Jurisprudence as well as Crime, Justice and Society will have given you some very helpful background and tools. Socio-legal studies, however, tends to be even broader than either of the above subjects: in fact, the UK Socio-Legal Studies Association defines it as a generic label which references a broad variety of approaches: “a ‘broad church’ which may include background approaches as diverse as sociology of law, cultural studies of law, studies of law in action, contextual legal studies, law and politics, governance studies, law and anthropology, or law and economics”.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of this unit a successful student will be able to:

• Recall, summarise, contrast and evaluate a range of different sociological approaches to law
• Summarise, compare, contrast and evaluate theoretical tenets from a variety of theorists accurately
• Assess theoretical and methodological approaches and select the most appropriate ones for their own research in sociology of law
• Identify and differentiate current applications of socio-legal research to key areas of law
• Apply core debates over research methods and research ethics to practical research questions.

Teaching Information

Ten one hour lectures plus ten 2 hour seminars.

Assessment Information

1 formative assessment: 2 x 1,000 word coursework. Formative assessments do not count towards final mark and can be optional.

2 x summative assessments: 2 x 2,000 word coursework. Summative assessments do count towards final mark.

The assessments will assess all of the intended learning outcomes for this unit.

Reading and References

There is no set text for the course and all the reading will be available in the library, online or on Blackboard. You will find the Journal of Law and Society and the Law and Society Review helpful for your own research.

You may find the following books helpful:

• R. Cotterell, The Sociology of Law: An Introduction, London: Butterworths, 1992
• R. Cotterell, Law’s Community: Legal Theory in Sociological Perspective
• R.Banakar & M. Travers, An Introduction to Law and Social Theory, Oxford: Hart