Exploring the 'Legal' in Socio-Legal Studies (Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies)

Socio-legal studies have had an ambivalent relationship with the 'legal' – one of its defining aspects, but at the same time one that the discipline has sought to transcend or even leave behind. While socio-legal studies benefit hugely from the insights, methods and theories of other social science and humanity disciplines, the contributions to __Exploring the 'Legal' in Socio-Legal Studies__ illustrate the value of a focus on the 'legal'. The chapters in this book combine traditional legal materials and analyses with other ways of engaging empirically with the 'legal'. They illustrate the rich potential of the 'legal' as a site both for theoretical and methodological reflection and for case study analysis. Taken as a whole, this volume demonstrates that methodological discussion is most helpful when rooted in empirical cases, and that the best case studies also help us to develop our methodologies. Bringing methodology and empirical analysis together offers an opportunity to reflect on socio-legal studies and develop the discipline in productive new directions. Front Matter ....Pages i-xi Exploring the ‘Legal’ (David Cowan, Daniel Wincott)....Pages 1-31 Front Matter ....Pages 33-33 Debt, Death and Redemption: Towards a Soterial-Legal History of the Turner Rebellion (Christopher Tomlins)....Pages 35-56 The Concept of Law in Global Societal Constitutionalism (Jiří Přibáň)....Pages 57-79 Portraying the Legal in Socio-Legal Studies through Legal-Naming Events (Natalie Ohana)....Pages 80-96 Fluid Legal Labels and the Circulation of Socio-Technical Objects: The Multiple Lives of ‘Fake’ Medicines (Emilie Cloatre)....Pages 97-114 Sex/Gender Equality: Taking a Break from the Legal to Transform the Social (Sharon Cowan)....Pages 115-134 Front Matter ....Pages 135-135 Solar Panels, Homeowners and Leases: The Lease as a Socio-Legal Object (Caroline Hunter)....Pages 137-156 Bringing the Technical into the Socio-legal: The Metaphors of Law and Legal Scholarship of a Twenty-First Century European Union (Paul James Cardwell, Tamara Hervey)....Pages 157-182 Territory and Human Rights: Mandatory Possession Proceedings (David Cowan)....Pages 183-203 Legal Technology in an Age of Austerity: Documentation, ‘Functional’ Incontinence and the Problem of Dignity (Helen Carr)....Pages 204-224 Following the Law or Using the Law? Decision-Making in Medical Manslaughter (Andrew Sanders, Danielle Griffiths)....Pages 225-244 Conclusions: A Socio-Legal Metatheory (Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos)....Pages 245-256 Afterword: A Method More Than a Subject (Annelise Riles)....Pages 257-264 Back Matter ....Pages 265-274 "Socio-legal studies have had an ambivalent relationship with the 'legal' - one of its defining aspects, but at the same time one that the discipline has sought to transcend or even leave behind. While socio-legal studies benefit hugely from the insights, methods and theories of other social science and humanity disciplines, the contributions to Exploring the 'Legal' in Socio-Legal Studies illustrate the value of a focus on the 'legal'. The chapters in this book combine traditional legal materials and analyses with other ways of engaging empirically with the 'legal'. They illustrate the rich potential of the 'legal' as a site both for theoretical and methodological reflection and for case study analysis. Taken as a whole, this volume demonstrates that methodological discussion is most helpful when rooted in empirical cases, and that the best case studies also help us to develop our methodologies. Bringing methodology and empirical analysis together offers an opportunity to reflect on socio-legal studies and develop the discipline in productive new directions"- - Springer "A unique collection exploring the nature of legalities in the understanding of socio-legal studies which at the same time provides a showcase for an eclectic range of high-quality scholarly contributions"-- Provided by publisher