Sociology of Law Midterm

Law and society as an academic discipline

• A bit of a contested field,

• Began in the 1960s,

• A time in which the field of sociology was increasingly interested in policy and social change.

• Interdisciplinary because it draws on methods and theories from multiple disciplines: sociology, psychology, history, law.

  • Law: Statues, legal decisions in court,

  • Application of the law: policing, judicial decisions, regulations, everyday people,

  • Legal institutions: Police, courts, prisons, jails, law schools, law firms etc.

• Aims to describe and explain the social world. Often focused on inequality and social marginality. Sociologist study power, who has it and who doesn’t, Use of sociological theories

Rogers vs. American Airlines

A landmark case of employment discrimination. Renee Rogers, a Black flight attendant, claimed wrongful termination due to American Airlines' policy prohibiting all-braided hairstyles. The court ruled against her, illustrating how the law often fails to recognize unique forms of oppression experienced at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities (e.g., race, gender), as existing anti-discrimination laws often address categories in isolation.

Law as a normative system

Law is a system tied to morality, functioning as 'a set of standards for human behavior that reflects and expresses society's deepest values' (Sutton, p. 5). This means laws prescribe what is considered right or wrong, permissible or forbidden, thereby institutionalizing societal expectations and moral principles into a framework that guides conduct and upholds collective ideals.

• “A set of standards for human behavior that reflects and expresses society's deepest values “(Sutton, p. 5)

Law as a game

“In which the winner is not the person with the superior moral position but the one who has the best command of the rules and the facts that pertain to a particular case.” (Sutton, p. 6), “A set of procedures for settling disagreements that is consistent and fair” (Sutton, p.6), Controlled by people within the legal system: lawyers and judges

Law as a behavioral system

A system with clearly defined roles, hierarchy, discretion, rules. It is interesting to find the consistent patterns around discretion and action! These patterns exist across groups, not just an individual 

Sociological theory

A handful of theorists in the 19th century are credited with developing the field of sociology

• From Germany and France (mostly), all men

• Their theories remain foundational today

• If you have taken another sociology class, you will have heard of them!

“Society” = nation-state

Classical theorists were less interested in empirical social science (this didn’t quite exist yet!) so their theories do not always hold as well as we would like

Mostly based in historical analysis, secondary data

Writing at a time of big social change = Industrial Revolution, declining power of religion and growing individualism

Theories are Social Darwinism and Maine and Durkheim’s theories

Darwin's Theory of Evolution

• Naturalist, studied botany at Cambridge University

• Published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859)

  • Traveled in the 1830s, didn’t publish theories until 20 years later

  • Another British scientist, Alfred Russel Wallace, announced a similar theory in 1858 prompted the two to publish their research

• Studied plant and animal life in South America and Australia

  • Galapagos Islands

• Caused backlash, against the prevailing religious ideas

• All existing creatures developed from a smaller number of original species

• Later generations have slight variations, certain variations have distinct advantages

• A greater chance of survival → more likely to be passed onto future generations

Maine and Durkheim

• Both adopting a similar Darwin-inspired perspective to societies

• Adopted evolutionary theories of social change

  • Societies evolve to become better, strongest features persist

• “History is an inevitable path of progress” — societies get more complex

• 1850s was a time of immense social change, industrialization was eroding traditional ways of life and causing migration to cities

Intersectionality

Oppression experienced at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities (e.g., race, class, gender), leading to unique forms of discrimination often not addressed by law, as exemplified by cases like Rogers vs. American Airlines

Critical Legal Studies

Began in 1970s, early 1980s - a group of law professors disenchanted with the law school curriculum

• Radicalized by the 1960s, inspired by Neo-Marxist, critical theory, and post modernist

• “Law is politics” - uncover political agendas underlying purportedly neutral laws

  • The law is not neutral

• Law schools work to maintain hierarchy, privilege

  • Should focus more on using the law as a tool for social justice

• Law is a tool of the economically powerful

Critical Race Theory

Concept born out of Critical Legal Studies (1980s)

• Law professors who hoped to increase the diversity of law professors and law students, highlight the unique perspective of people of color to the legal system

• Students of Derrick Bell → have punished this theory further, Kimberele Crenshaw

• Race does not exist as a prelegal category

• Race is a social construction, determined in part by the law

• The legacy of racism continues to be enshrined in law and has always been a part of law and politics in the U.S.

Chambliss analysis of vagrancy laws

A relationship between laws and the social setting in which they emerge, how they change over time, etc.

• Early vagrancy laws emerged to “force laborers (whether personally free or unfree) to accept employment at a low wage in order to insure the landowner an adequate supply of labor at a price he could afford to pay” (P. 69)

  • Black Death led to labor shortage, high demand for labor but need to keep cost of labor low

  • Mobility of serfs criminalized — need to prevent mobility and competition, criminalize begging, encouraging work

• Later changes to the economy and social structure, lead to change in the law

  • Feudalism → mercantile capitalism, lots of movement of goods and theft

• Vagrancy tied to criminality, less about mobility - concerns over idleness, crime prevention

• Today in the U.S. → serve similar purpose, control people deemed “undesirable,” idle, or those in public places

• Certain interest groups (with status) determine the content of the law and when laws are applied

  • Disagrees with Durkheim about law reflecting broad societal values

Lawless law (Friedman chapter)

'Lawless law' refers to situations where formal legal systems are replaced or undermined by unofficial forms of social control and violence. This occurs when the state loses its monopoly over legitimate violence (a concept central to Max Weber's political theory), leading to the emergence of alternative power structures. Examples include: - Police brutality, where state agents act outside legal bounds. - Vigilante movements, where self-appointed groups take law enforcement into their own hands. - Lynching, a form of extrajudicial killing by mobs. - Riots, characterized by widespread public disorder and violence. - Dueling, a historical practice of private combat to settle disputes. These 'lawless' actions, though outside formal legal frameworks, still often involve or are influenced by elite elements and powerful groups within society.

Social Darwinism

A set of ideologies that take Darwin's theory of natural selection and apply them to human groups and races, “survival of the fittest” (Darwin did not support this use of his ideas)

• “Weak” cultures were then diminished and the “strong” would grow in power and influence

• Theory was used to support laissez-faire capitalism, class stratification, imperialism, eugenics, and racist colonialism

  • Poor were “unfit” and should not be aided, governments should not interfere with natural selection

  • Justifies racist and bigoted beliefs

• Declined after WWII due to association with Nazism, no basis in science

Henry Maine

• Background 

  • 1822-1888

  • University of Cambridge, British historian and early anthropologist

  • Studied legal systems in Europe over time

Main theory 

• Patrilineal/Autocratic → Customary law → Era of Codes

• Patrilineal/Autocratic

  • Law is arbitrary, Unpredictable, Determined by ruler, Monarchie, tribes

• Customary law

  • Law based on shared principles and customs

  • feudalism - nobility

    • (English common law) 

• Era of Codes

  • Law is written, permanent

• “From status to contract”

  • Writing as urban-industrial societies are growing, development of free market capitalism

  • This form of law makes more sense for this new social order

    • Also helps justify growing economic inequality

Political/Economic Authority → Law

• Details 

  • Simple societies without law never existed, not all patrilineal

  • Ignored non-European societies

Maine’s theory was more of a normative claim about the law, not an empirical one

Max Weber 

• Background 

  • (1864-1920)

  • German economist, lawyer, and sociologist

  • Interested in the relationship between law, society, and rationality

  • Secularization under capitalism

  • “a state is a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force with a given territory.” (Politics as a Vocation, 1919)

• Main theory 

  • Forms of Legitimate Domination

	Traditional	Legal-Rational	Charismatic
Principles Used to Justify Obedience	Belief in the continuity of sacred tradition, leading typically to hereditary relationships	Belief in the legitimacy of legally enacted rules, including those that define the right of superiors to hold office	Emotional attachment to the charismatic leader based on his or her personal “gifts”
Characteristic Political and Administrative Structures	Household: No separation between person and office; subordinates are personally dependent on the ruler	Bureaucracy: Person and office are separated; power is impersonal; hierarchy is based on merit; administration and poltics are distinct	Discipleship: No rules, fluid structure; sacrifice and commitment to the collective mission determine positions in the hierarchy
Chronic Tensions	1. There is no effective check on the power of the ruler short of political revolt 2. The problem of scale: Personal dependence can not be extended indefinitely, so there are limitations to the size of the ruler’s domain	The depersonalization of power potentially creates an “iron cage” in which efficiency and expertise are more important than ultimate values	1. The leader’s “gifts” can disappear, leading followers to defect 2. If the movement persists long enough for the leader to die, charisma must be “routinized” or the movement will collapse.

• Details 

  • Weber also interested in analyzing the law

  • Analyzing law → how formal and rational?

    • How rational = to what extent are decisions based in logical, consistent, rules aimed at seeking the truth?

    • How formal = to what extent are decisions made by applying the same rules to all?

    • How substantive = to what extent are decisions made prioritizing ethical or political goals - justice (sometimes instead of formal procedures)

    • For Weber, the more formal and rational, the better (for capitalism)

Formal ← ↑ Rational ↓Irrational → Substantive

• Rationality - “a methodical style of life and a set of social institutions oriented around rules and mean-ends relationships” (Sutton, p. 100)

  • Plan behavior through goals and strategic action

  • Do not trust in magic, fate, or religion alone

At the time he was writing, rise of social institutions that “encourage people to be that events can be controlled through knowledge and reflection, and to act accordingly.” (p. 100)

→ Moving away from dominance of religious ideas of fate

 Towards scientific authority and capitalism 

• Domination - Means by which leaders secure obedience from followers

• Authority - As a situation in which a leader’s command is taken by the follower and acted on as if the follower valued the action for its own sake (Sutton, P.103)

  • Power that is relational, stable but with limits

Weber would ask why do people follow legal authority?

Rationality unique to Europe and North Africa

Interested in how people make meaning

-Analyzing the types of legal authority and the degree of formality/rationality of the law

-Historicist - less interested in creating grand theories

Emile Durkheim 

• Background 

  • 1858-1917

  • French Sociologist, philosopher

  • Concerned with moral bonds of society - what holds society together?

  • Society exists apart from individuals and influences behavior

  • Interested in using empirical data to develop social facts

• Main theory 

  • Consensus Model

    • Society is built on consensus; law reflects that consensus and helps hold society together

    • Law is a new source of moral authority (similar to religion)

    • Crimes are acts which seriously violate a society’s shared norms

      • Crimes reflect society's morality (not the other way around)

Society → Law

	Premodern Society	Modern Society
Type of Division of Labor	Unified - people have similar roles	Complex, specialized, interdependent
Type of Solidarity	Mechanical, hold similar values and beliefs	Organic, Differentiated roled
Role of Law	To enforce the “collective conscience”	To enforce social contracts
Types of Law	Repressive law (demonstrating sanction for violating moral order). Criminal law	Restitutive law (with the goal of reinstating an interdependent social order), Civil law: Erase harm- negative function. Social cooperation - positive function Criminal law still exists, but to restore order
Dominant form of Punishment	Public and often physical (shaming, whipping, torture, execution)	Less visible (fines, prison) Still have both kinds of law in modern societies

Durkheim would ask…

• How does law reflect the consensus of society?

• What does punishment tell you about society’s values?

- Details 

Evolutionary view of society and of the law

- Social solidarity drives social change

- Interested in developing grand theories

Positivist - uses observable data of the social world

Karl Marx

• Background 

  • 1818-1883

  • German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist

  • Wrote with his colleague Frederick Engels

  • The Communist Manifesto (1848); Das Kapital (1867)

  • Interested in tensions between social classes under early capitalism

• Main theory 

  • Marx viewed society as struggle between two groups with incompatible economic interests: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat

    • bourgeoisie = society’s wealthy ruling class, capitalists

    • proletariat = workers (those who are ruled)

Law serves a coercive role, where the bourgeoisie use law to impose their will on the proletariat, and to make it more difficult for the proletariat to resist

• Did not develop as clear a theory of law as the other theorists

• Marx inspired his own sociology students, a scholar of the law who have followed in the Marxist tradition (similar to Durkheim/Weber)

  • Antonio Gramsci, Italian Marxist philosopher (writing in the 1920s)

  • Louis Althusser, French philosopher

  • Nicos Poulantzas, Greek philosopher

  • E.P. Thompson and Douglas Hay, British historians and philosophers

Relationship between law and power, how does the law create power? Help maintain power?

• Details

  • Alienation - when humans lose control over “their unique creative faculties” (Sutton p.64), estrangement from human nature as a consequence of the division of social classes

    • Workers lose control over the fruits of their labor - produce for the market

    • Workers lose control over the process of their labor

    • Human social relationships are reduced to instrumental market relationships

    • Humans are estranged from the social institutions they have created

    • Also alienated in their consumption - define identity by what you consume

  • People use ideologies and religion to cope with this reality

  • Human rights = property rights

  • Workers become like property, labor power

Economic interests → Law

• Also capitalist economies are so productive, may be the answer to inequality (if different social relations existed)

• Class conflict drives changes in law

  • this is different from Durkheim/Maine/Weber who saw other kinds of political, economic, and social changes as also driving changes to the law

  • In other words, class-based economic interests lead to chages in the law

• The workers who are most impacted will be the ones to drive social change

  • Philosophy and sociology should be used to assist in that social transformation - revolutionary praxis
    

Antonio Gramsci

• Background 

  • Antonio Gramsci, Italian Marxist philosopher (writing in the 1920s)

  • Louis Althusser, French philosopher

• Main theory 

Why do workers go along with capitalism?

• Over time, the economic elites may need to concede to the workers (such as passing labor laws - minimum wage, weekends)

• This political process creates a shared consciousness or culture (ideology) - reproduce social relations and conceal contradictions

• Differs from Marx in that ideology doesn’t just serve to distract, but also ties classes together and “manufactures consent”

  • Economic elites control culture, through social institutions— media, education, etc.

• Law and other social institutions then works to help pass that shared ideology across generations — the values of the ruling class

Catherine MacKinnon 

• Background 

  • 1946-

  • Law professor at University of Michigan and Harvard University

  • Feminist legal scholar

  • Influential in legal understandings of pronography, sexual harrasment, rape and prostitution

• Main theory 

  • “The make perspective is systemic and hegemonic”

  • A post-Marxist feminism considers the relationship between the state and society

  • Existing feminist theory has considered the law as either the mind of society (Durkheim) or a reflection of material interests (Marx)

  • Pushing back on the appearance of neutrality in the law, as inherently principled

  • The law rules in a male way by claiming it to be objective and neutral, “when the law appears to be most neutral, it will be most male;

  • when it is most sex blind, it will be most blind to the sec of the standard being applied. When it most closely conforms to precedent, to “fact” to legislative intent, it will most closely enforce socially male norms and most thoroughly preclude questioning their consent as having a point of view at all” (in MacKinnon, “Feminism, Marxism, Method, and the State: Toward Feminist Jurisprudence,” 1983, p.658)

  • The law creates and reinforces patriarchal authority

  • The law is often written from a male perspective (because of the inherent gender and power imbalances in society)

• Details

  • MacKinnon argues that there is an inherent tension between attempts at equality by sex

    • Formal equality = equal to men, same as men

    • Recognition of difference by sex, sex is difference = equal access, value or compensate women under existing conditions

      • “Special protection rule legally, the double standard philosophically”

  • “Concealed is the substantive way in which man has become the measure of all things” (P. 82)

    • Sameness standard = women measured against man

    • Difference standard = “our womanhood measured by our differences”

“I should say that it takes up a very important problem: how to get women access to everything we have been excluded from, while also valuing everything that women are or have been allowed to become or have developed as a consequence of our struggle either not to be excluded from most of life’s pursuits or to be taken seriously under the terms that have been permitted to be our terms.” (P. 83)

• We risk thinking that the way to get things for women is to get them for men

  • But deep inequalities still exist in work, pay, social life, etc.

• We already make men the default in both structure and culture

  • Sports

  • Insurance

  • Workplace expectations and norms

    • Office building temperatures are set with the assumption that men are wearing suits

      • Why it’s so cold and the assumption that they will get hot even with greater gender advancements

  • Art

  • Citizenship

“Difference doctrine says it is sex discrimination to give women what we need, because only women need it. It is not sex discrimination not to give women what we need because then only women will not get what we need.” (P. 84)

• Inequalities in parental leave and childrearing

There exists a hierarchy of power that produces differences

Differences we attribute to female gender (ie. caring qualities) have been produced by the legacy of this inherent inequality

• “the damage of sexism is real, and reifying that into differences is an insult to our possibilities" (P.87)

Distribution of Power

Dominance Approach

• In the law, there is an inherent unequal distribution of power

  • Things that happen exclusively to women (because of existing social power structures) are left out of discussion of equality law

• Feminist theory is to shift the perspective, to see inequalities from the perspective of women and not from the status quo

  • The goal should not be to make things equal for women as they are for men

  • Advocating to move away from the law focusing on cases of intentional discrimination

Legality

The ways in which commonplace transactions and relationships come to assume (or not assume) a legal character (p.17)

• Legality is a feature of social relations, not just formal law-not something that exists apart from the social

  • And not only produced by elites in formal legal institutions

• Meanings, sources of authority, and cultural practices commonly recognized as legal - people may evoke legality in ways not acknowledged by formal law (p.22)

Legal pluralism

Two or more sets of laws and legal practices operating (more or less) at the same time in the same place

• The Friedman reading talks about legal pluralism as a “system of clashing norms” in which vigilante justice comes to meet this void

  • “white capping” - went after crimes that were not against the law, people who offended moral code

    • Wife beaters, immoral couples or individuals, lazy people, etc.

• Difficult for people to obey the law when formal systems of law overlap

  • Federal/state, state/local

• Sometimes formal law overlaps with non-legal forms or rules

• 6 “clusters of law” - Boaventura de Sousa Santos

  • Domestic law (rules, norms, policies of households)

  • Production law (rules re wages, working conditions, workplace conduct)

  • Exchange law (the rules and standards governing marketplace)

  • Community law (rules/norms/values of religious, social and cultural communities)

  • State law/formal law (LAW)

  • Systemic laws (global standards/rules, international law)

• Sometimes there is no conflict - systems work together

  • Multiple formal systems working together

    • I.E. Dual sovereignty of federal and state governments - federal government regulates interstate matters, states regulate intrastate matters

    • I.E. Supremacy clause makes clear that, in case of conflict, federal law supreme

  • Community norms may govern in absence of formal law

  • Formal law may recognize/sanction/adopt community norms

  • Community norms may recognize/sanction/adopt formal law

• Sometimes there is significant conflict - systems and rules clash

  • Multiple formal systems clash

  • I.E. Federal and state laws conflict

    • Marijuana Legalization

• Formal law conflicts with community norms

  • I.E. First Amendment free speech and right to protest

• Formal law conflicts with community norms

  • I.E. Dibs

Law on the books vs. the law in action

There is often a gap created by this process of meaning-making

Written law → [Meaning Making] → Local enforcers of the law

Law are often vague or ambiguous, do not provide specific recipes for action

Can be applied unevenly, meanings change over time

• Discretion - actors on the ground are then “making law” by choosing how to enforce

• External interests - for example, industries may be involved in both influencing the creation of law and its enforcement

• Actuarial or data management - policies are influenced by the data we collect about them

  • Prioritize performance measures, things we can quantify

“Vulnerable detainee” policies in the UK (Turnbull article)

UK government wants to treat “vulnerable” detainees differently

• An individual will be regarded as being an adult at risk if:

  • They declare they are suffering from a condition or have experienced a traumatic event (such as traffiicking, torture, or sexual violence), that would be likely to render them particulary vulnerable to harm if they are placed in detention or remain in detention [and/or]

  • Those considering or reviewing detention are aware of medical or otehr professionals evidence, or observational evidence, which indicates that an individual is suffering from a condition, or has experineced a traumatic event (such as trafficking , torture, or sexual violence), that would be likely to render them particulary vulnerable to harm if they are placed in detention or remain in detention — whether or not the indivudal has highlighted this themselves

Complications of this policy

• People may be detained while they prove their vulnerability

• Confinement itself can be disabling → create vulnerability

Legal consciousness

Not just a state of mind, revealed in what people do and say

• Individual legal consciousness expresses collective understandings, but still vary person to person

• Ewick and Silbey identify three different forms of legal consciousness

  • One person can express all three kinds in different contexts

• “Law and society” = assumes that the law is something separate and apart from society

  • Ewick and Silbey are interested in the law in society

 How the law is experienced and interpreted by people

Has consequences for when they use it and how

• As attitudes - ideas, beliefs, and attitudes of individuals about the law

• As epiphenonmenon - a byproduct of social structure - a particular economic and social order creates legal subjects, behavior and consciousness

• As cultural practice - incorporates both human action and structural constraint, social interactions aggregate into institutions

“Before the law” legal consciousness

This the conceptualization is one that “liberal law claims for itself” (p. 106)

• Predominant American legal ideology

• Neutral (justice is blind) and balanced (scales)

• Law that transcends people and time

• Grandeur of the court

Liberalism

Political philosophy that takes protecting and enhancing the freedom of the individual as central, government’s role is in protecting freedoms

Founding principles of the U.S.

Key ideas in Privilege and Punishment (Clair chapter)

Attorney-client relationship is a significant mechanism for inequality

Disadvantaged defendants are more distrustful of their attorneys and contest their expertise, while more privileged defendants trust and deter to their attorneys

Displays of resistance in court are punished

• People from more disadvantaged backgrounds often had lay expertise about how the courts operate

• Middle class defendants do not discuss cases with others to the same extent

• “The poorer you were, the more likely you were to be dissatisfied with your lawyer” (p.69)

  • Not just about outcomes, but skepticism about pay structure, cultural distance, and other negative experiences

  • Structure of the system: overburdened, little choice

  • Leads to resistance and resignation → not from lack of interest

“Cynicism of legal officials alongside faith in legal rights and procedures” (Clair, P. 98)

“How America Outlawed Adolescence” article

After Columbine they added police officers into schools and criminalizing distractions, eventually led to more violence in school such as fights or weapons. Can’t get kids in trouble for things they do naturally like talking back. Puts kids into justice system too early which keeps them there longer and are more likely to be incarcerated, drop-out and get into more trouble from this 

The Common Place of Law book and its main ideas/arguments - 

The Common Place of Law by Patricia Ewick and Susan S. Silbey presents a theory of "legality" by analyzing how ordinary people in the United States use and experience law in their daily lives, particularly through the three narrative patterns of "before the law," "with the law," and "against the law". The book uses extensive interviews and case studies to show that people's diverse understandings of law—as a remote, a game, or an arbitrary power—shape their engagement with legal rules and institutions. 

• Three Narratives of Legality:

  Ewick and Silbey identify three common narratives that people use to make sense of the law: 

  • "Before the Law": This narrative describes the law as magisterial, remote, and authoritative, leading people to be deferential, mystified, and submissive before it. 

  • "With the Law": In this narrative, the law is seen as a game with rules that can be manipulated to one's advantage, leading people to be tactical and seek personal benefit. 

  • "Against the Law": This narrative characterizes the law as an arbitrary power that should be resisted, leading people to actively oppose it. 

• Law as Lived Experience:

  The study emphasizes that legality is not just a formal system of rules but a constantly produced social structure experienced through daily practices, power relations, and individual consciousness. 

• Power and Resistance:

  Influenced by Michel Foucault, the book explores the dynamics of power in law and how power is resisted, recognized, and reconstituted through personal experiences and collective practices. 

• Cultural Context of Law:

  The book argues that cultural values and social positions inform different understandings of legality, creating a diverse landscape of legal consciousness among individuals. 

• Social Construction of Legality:

  Through story-telling and analysis of everyday interactions, Ewick and Silbey demonstrate how ordinary people actively create and shape the meaning and function of law in their lives

McDonald’s coffee case

• The McDonald's coffee case, Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants, was a landmark 1994 product liability lawsuit. Stella Liebeck, an 80-year-old woman, suffered third-degree burns after spilling McDonald's coffee on her lap. The coffee was served at an unusually hot temperature (between 180−190180−190 degrees Fahrenheit), significantly hotter than coffee served by other establishments, posing a known risk of severe burns if spilled. Liebeck initially sought compensation for her medical bills, and after McDonald's refused to settle for a reasonable amount, the case went to trial.

• The case became a symbol, often misrepresented, in public discourse for frivolous lawsuits, but legally it underscored issues of corporate responsibility, product safety, and the tort system's role in consumer protection.

Prisoner grievance system

Federal law requires that incarcerated people exhaust all

administrative process for grievances before they can go to court

• In each state, the Department of Corrections controls the process and there are often multiple levels of review

• “both the defendant and the judge in the case” (Calavita and Jenness, p.1)

• Despite low chance of success, the grievance system is well used

Disputing pyramid, “naming, blaming, and claiming”

- The process by which disputes enter formal legal institutions

• Naming→ an injurious experience is perceived

• Blaming→ the injurious experience becomes a grievance

• Claiming→ the experience becomes a legal dispute

• This is a social process

• Newer research has complicated this as a linear process and shown more variation across social groups