1st Edition

Max Weber's Interpretive Sociology of Law

By Michel Coutu Copyright 2018
    315 Pages
    by Routledge

    315 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book presents a clear and precise account of the structure and content of Max Weber's sociology of law: situating its methodological and epistemological specificity in relation to other approaches to the sociology of law; as well as offering a critical evaluation of Weber's usefulness for contemporary socio-legal research. The book is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the methodological foundations of Weber's sociology of law. The second analyses the central theme of this sociology, the rationalisation of law, from the perspective of its internal logical coherence, its empirical validity, and finally its legitimacy. The third part questions the present-day relevance of the Weberian sociology of law for socio-legal research, notably with regard to legal pluralism. Max Weber, it is demonstrated, is not merely a 'founding father' of the sociology of law; rather, his methodology, concepts, and empirical analyses remain highly useful to the further development of work in this area.

    Introduction

    Part I. Methodological Foundations

    Chapter 1. The Starting Point: Max Weber’s Critique of Stammler

    Chapter 2. The Ideal-Typical Method

    Chapter 3. Rationality as a Fundamental Category of Weberian Sociology

    Part II. Rationalisation of Law

    Chapter 4. Logical Coherence

    Chapter 5. Empirical Validity

    Chapter 6: Legitimacy

    Part III. Weberian Sociology and Contemporary Law: Some Key Aspects

    Chapter 7. Sociology of Law and Jurisprudence

    Chapter 8. Legal Pluralism

    Chapter 9. Substantive Rationalisation of Law

    Conclusion

    References

    Index

    Biography

    Michel Coutu is Professor of labour law and legal sociology at the School of Industrial Relations, Université de Montréal, Canada.