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 |
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”.
By the end of this unit a successful student will be able to:
Ten one hour lectures plus ten 2 hour seminars.
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.
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: