Law and Society Midterm

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what is the accepted comprehensive theory of law and society?
there is no single comprehensive theory
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what value does the classical and contemporary theories of law and society provide?
- provides the history and relationship between each theory
- differentiates and organizes the large amount of content
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examples of informal control devices
customs or social, religious and moral sanctions
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why will the legal system continue to grow in complexity?
- economic growth and diversity
- increase in industrialization
- social institutions become more stratified and specialized
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modern legal system
extensive networks of local and national statutes, private and public codes, crimes and torts, common and civil laws, and procedural and substantive rules
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Administrative law
the body of law that regulates the operation and procedures of government agencies; public and procedural laws
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trends in modern legal systems
- legislation is more acceptable in adjusting laws bc of political development
- courts now mediate conflict
- administrative statuses are bureaucratized
- laws and court decisions are enforced by clearly differentiated and organized police forces
- legislative, judicial, and executive functions are separate and distinct
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natural law
the assumption that through reason the nature of human beings can be known and that this knowledge can provide the basis for social and legal ordering of human existence
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two views of natural law
- law in any given society is a reflection of natural law
- natural law was largely displaced by historical and evolutionary interpretations of the law
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challenges to underlying assumptions of natural law:
* natural law must be radically different in its conceptualization in law and society
* laws a result of physical environment, antecedents
* laws are relative; none are good or bad in abstract
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Baron de Montesquieu
believed government should have separation of powers: legislative, executive, judicial
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Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
society follows a natural evolutionary progression toward something better
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evolutionary progression consists of consists of:
growing differentiation, individuation, increasing division of labour
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there are two main stages in the development of evolutionary progression:
primitive and military form
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William Graham Sumner
intellectual defender of laissez-faire capitalism who argued that the wealthy owed "nothing" to the poor
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Henry Maine
Society evolves from family/contract
Father is the "boss"
Evolutionary stage Perspective/ from "archaic" to "modern" Law , From "status" to "contract"
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status
a fixed condition in which an individual is with and without opportunity
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who are the classical sociologists theorists?
karl marx, max weber, emile durkheim, foucault
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karl marx
1818-1883. 19th century philosopher, political economist, sociologist, humanist, political theorist, and revolutionary. Often recognized as the father of communism. Analysis of history led to his belief that communism would replace capitalism as it replaced feudalism. Believed in a classless society.
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3 principal assumptions in Marx's theory of law
- law is a product of evolving economic forces
- law is a tool used by a ruling class to maintain its power over the lower class
- in a communist society, law as an instrument of social control will disappear
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doctrine of dialectical materialism
the political, social, religious, and cultural order, of any given epoch is determined by the existing system of production and forms a superstructure on top of this economic basis
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max weber
Father of sociology. Argued that in a capitalist society inequalities would lead to conflict, but that there would be more than one source of conflict. Argued that there were several factors that moderated people's reaction to inequality.
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typology of legal procedures (according to weber)
rational and irrational
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rational legal procedure
logical and scientific methods
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irrational legal procedure
ethical or mystical considerations
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legal procedures can proceed rationally or irrationally with respect to...
formal or substantive law
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formal law
making decisions based on established rules, regardless of fairness
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substantive law
making decisions based on the circumstances of each law
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what are the four types of specific societies according to weber?
substantive irrationality, formal irrationality, substantive rationality, formal rationality
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Substantive Irrationality
legal decisions on a case-by-case basis without a set of legal principles
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formal irrationality
legal decisions based on formal rules but not based on reason or logic
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substantive rationality
rationality driven by a search for efficiency, but sensitive to the values of the community and social others
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formal rationality
•Based on adherence to the rule of law characterized by due process and fair procedure determined by established legal principles and rules
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what are the three types of administration of justice?
kahdi justice, empirical justice, rational justice
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Kahdi Justice
The justice that is dispensed by the judge of the Islamic Shari'a court
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empirical justice
The deciding of cases by referring to analogies and by relying on and interpreting precedents.
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rational justice
based on bureaucratic principles. Rationality can be further based on adherence to "eternal characteristics" (observable, concrete features) of the facts of the case.
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emile durkheim
Believed in functionalism and the scientific method; saw society as a set of independent parts that maintain a system but each separate part has a function
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what are the two types of solidarity in society according to durkheim?
mechanical and organic
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mechanical solidarity
relatively simple societies where unity is found through similarity in attitudes and schedules
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organic solidarity
social cohesion based on difference and interdependence of the parts
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what are the two types of law according to durkheim?
repressive and restitutive
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repressive law
characteristic of mechanical solidarity, where offenders are likely to be severely punished for any action seen as an offense against the collective conscience
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restitutive law
in relation to organic solidarity, punishment deals with compensation for harm done
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modern society is bound by what type of solidarity?
organic solidarity
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who are the sociological theorists?
albert venn dicey, oliver wendell holmes, e. adamson hoebel
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albert venn dicey
Liberalism. Advocated rule of law. For the rule of law to exist there must be equality before the law for everyone. A society should not be governed by arbitrary power. The government is also subject to their own laws.
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liberalism
A belief that government can and should achieve justice and equality of opportunity.
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3 aspects of dicey's "rule of law"
- the rule of law is not consistent with authority
- the rule of law means total subjection to all classes
- individual rights derive from court precedents rather than constitutional codes
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Oliver Wendell Holmes
current necessity rather than precedent should determine the rules by which people are governed; founder of legal realism
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legal realism
the conception of the judicial process whereby judges are responsible for formulating law, rather than finding it in law books
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e adamson hoebel
law and the legal system is property of that specific community's culture; trends in law are based on the culture of those societies
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what are the two ideal conception in the role of law in society?
consensus perspective and conflict perspective
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consensus perspective
a perspective that projects an image of society as the collective expression of shared norms and values; functionalist approach
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conflict perspective
approach emphasizing the role of conflict, competition, and constraint within a society; conflict and marxist approach
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functionalist approach
assumes that particular decision-making functions can be identified that, when performed, will lead to high-quality decision making
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who are functionalist sociologists?
comte, spencer, durkheim, malinowski
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Criticisms of Functionalism
-Disregard historical process
-Hard to explain social change
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Conflict/Marxist Theory
assumes that social behaviour can be best understood in terms of tension and conflict between groups and individuals
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social change
large numbers of people are engaging in group activities and relationships that are different from those in which they or their parents engaged in previously
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3 types of legitimate authority
traditional, charismatic, legal-rational
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traditional authority
Power due to custom, tradition, or accepted practice
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charismatic authority
power legitimized by extraordinary personal abilities that inspire devotion and obedience
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rational-legal authority
power legitimized by legally enacted rules and regulations
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why is law distinct?
sets norms of behaviour, everyone is expected to comply, substantive and quantitative
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what are the 5 types of law?
constitutional, civil, criminal, administrative, local/national/international
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civil law
the system of law concerned with private relations between members of a community rather than criminal, military, or religious affairs.
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constitutional law
Laws relating to the interpretation of the Constitution
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criminal law
A law that defines crimes that violates one's safety
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administrative law
the body of law that regulates the operation and procedures of government agencies.
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local, national, and international law
principle of actions that deals with people on a local, national, and international level
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who creates the law?
government, courts, social movements
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what are the 3 functions of the law?
social control, dispute resolution, social change
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legal pluralism
the idea that laws exist simultaneously and may be working together or in conflict with each other bc of the sheer number of actors and levels in their operations
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social structures in relation to the law
colonialism and enslavement, capitalism and neoliberalism, social inequality
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neoliberalism
an economic and political worldview that sees the free market as the main mechanism for ensuring economic growth, with a severely restricted role for government
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gap studies
the written law vs. the implementation of it has a gap between them
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what are the two causes of gap studies?
differential enforcement, discretion, and structural dilemmas faced by policymakers and enforcement agents
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differential enforcement
The law is differentially applied, benefiting those who hold economic and social power and penalizing the powerless.
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criticism of functionalism
ignores unequal power, cannot contend with conflict as an intrinsic feature of society
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criticism of conflict perspective
held guilty of economic determinism, ignores colonialism, racism, and patriarchy
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economic determinism
the belief that human behavior and relationships are ultimately caused by differences in financial resources and the disparity in power that those gaps create
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critical legal studies
theory of law largely concerned with exposing law as an instrument of the rich and powerful; impact of events can always be undone and changed with its inherent structural tilt
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structural tilt
the built-in maintaining for certain agendas and social order
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feminist CRIT
- law is embedded in patriarchal ideas and relations
- the law reflects and reproduces gender inequality
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three types of feminist CRIT
liberal, radical, socialist
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liberal feminism
optimistic perspective on law as an instrument for change
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radical feminism
perspective that only fundamental structural changes will create equality
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critical race theory
the study of the relationship among race, racism, and power; race is intrinsic to the law and racialized voices should be amplified
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arguments of critical race theory
- racism is constitutive of society and the law
- law reflects dominant white interests
- voices of oppressed groups essential to expose racial inequality and racism
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Settler Colonialism
a distinct type of colonialism that functions through the replacement of indigenous populations with an invasive settler society that currently holds a distinctive identity and sovereignty
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logic of elimination
A mindset that guided the ways in which Europeans erased Indigenous peoples from the land and society's consciousness
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what are the two major mechanisms of logic of elimination?
genocide and forced assimilation
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how does the law enforce settler colonialism through material and symbolic means?
- categorizes Indigenous people as a "racial group" to separate them from Europeans
- defines settler authority as "lawful" and Indigenous ppl as "unlawful"
- restricts status vs. non-status based on misogyny and racialization
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indian act
- defines who is registered as Indian and who can live and pass on their reserves
- status vs. nonstatus
- remove status rights from indigenous women
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bill c-31
Removal of the discriminatory clause from the Indian Act and women and their children were able to regain their status.
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social form
Gender, ethnicity, identity, and political institutions that maintain beliefs and artifacts
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legal form
Documents that can be used in a court proceeding
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practices of the legal profession shifts with...
the social and economic conditions of society
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law is constituted by and constitutes...
the surrounding social, political, and economic landscape