Learning Outcomes
After following this course, the Erasmus law students should be able to:
* Better understand how society functions and how it interacts with the legal system
* Be more aware of the various ways in which social scientists think about law and legal institutions
* Be better acquainted with the methodology of Sociology, a purely ontological science
* Think more deeply about how and why law matters to society, economics, politics and culture
* Identify the social sources underlying the production of legal rules, legislative action and reform-- but also its impact (its intended and unintended consequences on society)
Course Content (Syllabus)
Sociology of Law (or Law & Society) is a fascinating subject of scientific study, which brings together two dynamic ever-changing worlds: the social sciences and legal science. This course introduces the students to the dialogue and communication between Law and Society. It begins with an investigation of legitimacy and authority, in an effort to answer the classic question of “why people obey the law”. In the next lessons, it presents the main thinkers who have shaped its intellectual tradition, and proceeds to view Law through the lens of the basic schools of sociological theory: structural-functionalism (Comte, Durkheim, Spencer) and its more contemporary variants of systems theory, conflict theory as represented by Karl Marx and Max Weber’s Verstehende Soziologie. The course then examines the academic currents which challenged legal positivism in Europe (mainly in Germany and France) and legal formalism in the US (American Legal Realism). A discussion of culture and its impact on legal thinking leads to the exploration of more contemporary approaches to law, such as the role of judges and lawyers in modern legal systems, the significance of gender equality and the successful recent paradigm of alternative dispute resolution. Last but not least, we discuss the most dramatic of current events, post-war migration and the socio-legal status of migrant populations in Europe.
Course Bibliography (Eudoxus)
* ΙΝΤΖΕΣΙΛΟΓΛΟΥ, Νικόλαος (2012), Κοινωνιολογία του Δικαίου- Εισαγωγή σε μια Ρεαλιστική Νομική Επιστήμη. Διεπιστημονική Προσέγγιση του Νομικού Φαινομένου, Θεσσαλονίκη: Εκδ. Σάκκουλα. Κωδικός βιβλίου στον ΕΥΔΟΞΟ: 12552406
* ΤΣΑΟΥΣΗ, Ασπασία (2013), Δίκαιο και Συνεργατικότητα: Μια Νέα Προσέγγιση στην Κοινωνιολογία του Δικαίου, Αθήνα: Εκδ. Παπαζήση. Κωδικός βιβλίου στον ΕΥΔΟΞΟ: 33114225
* ΠΑΠΑΧΡΙΣΤΟΥ, Αθανάσιος (2015) Κοινωνιολογία του Δικαίου. Αθήνα: Εκδ. Αντ. Ν. Σάκκουλα. Κωδικός βιβλίου στον ΕΥΔΟΞΟ: 50660605
Additional bibliography for study
* Banakar, Reza, and Max Travers, eds. (2013). Law and Social Theory. 2d ed. Oxford: Hart.
* Cotterrell, Roger (1992). The Sociology of Law: An Introduction. 2d ed. London: Butterworths.
* Deflem, Mathieu (2008) Sociology of Law: Visions of a Scholarly Tradition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
* Ferrari, Vincenzo, ed. (1990) Developing a Sociology of Law: A World-wide Documentary Enquiry. Milan: Dott A. Giuffrè Editore.
* Larson, Erik, and Patrick Schmidt, eds. (2014) The Law and Society Reader II. New York: New York Univ. Press.
* Sarat, Austin, ed. (2004) Blackwell Companion to Law and Society. Malden, MA: Blackwell.