Sociology of Law: Towards a Responsive Theory

This book presents a theory-historically grounded blueprint for a responsive sociology of law. It is based on the conviction, gained in research in the sociology of law, that sociology has more to say about law than its disciplinary surface reveals and than its self-descriptions allow. Responsive sociology of law, it is argued, can be formulated as a discourse of practice in the sociology of law based on the scientific autonomy of sociology. Responsiveness then denotes a form of interdisciplinarity that does not amount to the mere absorption of sociological insights by jurisprudence, but envisages a symmetrical arrangement of mutual relations.

Dr. phil. Alfons Bora, Ass. iur., is Professor emeritus of Sociology at Bielefeld University.