Boundaries of Legal

Sociology
READING DONALD BLACK
Defining Sociology of Law

 Sociology of law refers to scientific study of life as a system of human

behaviour.
 The task of Sociology of Law is to ‘develop a general theory of law
which could explain all legal behaviour.
 Law is the ‘governmental social control.
 Contemporary sociology of is replete with evaluative and policy studies
with an emphasis on using of scientific terminologies viz. system,
structure, processes etc.
Sociology

 The founding fathers of Sociology have strived hard to develop and

project sociology as a scientific discipline.
 One of the major characteristic of science has been ‘value neutrality or
ethical neutrality’. Black call’s this as ‘value free’.
 Since Sociology of Law is modelled on the natural science in general
and sociology in particular it must adheres to the rigorous standards of
science especially its distance from values.
 Unfortunately must practitioners of contemporary sociology of law do
not adhere to these virtues of science thus producing biased views, he
calls them engaged in advocacy masquerading as science.
Recent Problems

 Recent in enquiry in Sociology of law has been reduced to the study of

“Legal Effectiveness”.
 Impact (Impact of Environmental Protection Act on hazardous
industries)
 Implementation (D. K. Basu v Union of India)
 Comparison (Rule of Law and current procedural law)
Problems of Values

 Contemporary researches applying technocentric norms trying to

evaluate policy implications is bereft of true sociological method though
they are popular.
 Max Weber, one of the founding fathers of sociology has categorically
called for ‘value free sociology’ and clearly underlining the perspective
of sociological research.
 Though he understood the difficulty of the task especially studying
human behavior in a human society by humans, he clarified that the
difficulty of the task should not force us to abandon the objective
altogether.
 Values creates biases, prejudices and leads to adovacy.
Positive Sociology

 Black believed that contemporary sociology of law with its focus on

policy and evaluative studies produces at best applied sociology and at
worst sheer ideology.
 Therefore, adherents of true sociology must strive for a value free
sociological research.
 That would mean underlying the value of empirical knowledge.
 A knowledge based on experience what Durkheim would call study of
social facts.
Limitations of Science

 Science deals with phenomena and not essence

 Science requires and empirical referent point
 Science has nothing to do with value
 Therefore, anything which is not distinctively legal does not fall within
the ambit of sociology of law
What should be the subject matter of Sociology
of Law then:

 Donald Black gives the example of his own study on police behaviour:
 1. There must be an empirical referent viz. discernable behavioural
pattern
 2. An observable act
 3. Possibility of generalization

 An observable act which is based rational choice duly calculated while

comparing with various other available options