The Two Faces of Law and Inequality: From Critique to the Promise of Situated,Pragmatic Policy

Over the course of my career, I have navigated a research agenda that moves between scholarly and policy‐oriented research. Building on this experience, I argue that it is time for law and society scholars to take seriously a commitment to engaged scholarship that speaks to a wider audience of stakeholders and policymakers. Three themes frame my proposal to get back in the game of advocacy and policy. First, I consider why we need to rekindle this commitment at this historical moment: inequalities in wealth, income, and social mobility and the rise of mass incarceration and its collateral consequences diminish the foundation required for effective democratic governance to thrive. Second, what our scholarship has to say is key to the framing of pragmatic policy: law and society's focus on law in action and the culture of law are key to understanding the ways in which most policies tend to deliver unintended consequences. Finally, we need to consider how to go about the next step to make our work visible to a wider audience of stakeholders?     

中国的法律社会学研究

中国的法律社会学研究自1980年代复兴以来,学者们建立起了法律社会学的基本理论框架,并结合社会实践开展了一系列研究,取得了较为丰硕的成果。法律社会学与社会学法学存在称谓之争,但近期研究以法律社会学的提法为主流。法律社会学的基本理论包括法律社会学的定义、研究对象、理论特征、研究框架、研究的意义等,学者们就此进行了深入探讨,对法律社会学的方法论更是投入了较多的精力。应当有重点地加强新时期的法律社会学研究。     

Reflections on the Methodological Issues of the Sociology of Law

The general focus of this paper is on the methodological limitations of the sociology of law in capturing the law's 'truth' as its practitioners experience it. The paper starts with arguing that the law does not have a monolithic 'truth'. Some aspects of its 'truth' are produced through its own recursively sealed operations, while its other aspects are generated with reference to empirically grounded knowledge, which potentially links the discourses of law and sociology. Notwithstanding this discursive kinship, the sociological studies of the law's internal processes cause difficulties even to those scholars who are versed in substantive law. To expound this problem, the sociology of law is compared with medical sociology and attention is drawn to the way sociology copes with the 'truth' of medicine. The final part of the paper initiates a quest for possible solutions to the methodological problems of the sociology of law by placing them in the context of the ongoing conflicts and competitions of the field of science.     

改革开放30年中国产业政策法研究述评

产业政策和反垄断法是国家干预经济的两种武器。其中产业政策是我国政府最常用的武器,国内学者大多从经济学角度研究产业政策。试图从经济法学的角度阐述改革开放30年我国学者对产业政策法的研究成果,力图梳理加以系统化,同时指出研究中存在的问题,以期望更高更深层次的研究成果的发表和出版。尤其2008年世界性金融危机的爆发,研究产业政策法治化以及产业政策法基本内容的问题具有一定的现实意义和实践意义。加紧对产业政策法研究,对理论和实践工作具有一定的指导意义。     

比较法在近代中国

比较法是近代西方法律文化的产物,自19世纪中期以来开始在中国传播。汉字的比较法(比较法学)一词是20世纪初年从日本传入中国的。一批著名的学者和论著对中国的比较法学科的形成和发展作出了重要的贡献。由于受到国内立法政策和研究环境等因素的影响,因此近代中国的比较法也具有自己的鲜明的特征。     

The Economics of Science and Technology

This paper provides a non-technical, accessible introduction to various topics in the burgeoning literature on the economics of science and technology. This is an interdisciplinary literature, drawing on the work of scholars in the fields of economics, public policy, sociology and management. The aim of this paper is to foster a deeper appreciation of the economic importance of science and technology issues. We also hope to stimulate additional research on these topics.     

《道路交通安全法》第七十六条运行实效考察

《道路交通安全法》第七十六条关于交通事故处理的规定引起社会的强烈关注,其运行实效究竟如何?从法律运行实效的视角,运用法律社会学的法律实效理论的研究路径,根据法律实效评判的内在标准和外在标准,依托权威性的“社会事实”,兼采经验实证与逻辑推理的方法,揭示该七十六条的良好实效,展示该法律在实现社会控制中起到的积极作用,吁请人们树立正确的守法观念和守法意识,坚持依法办事,建构良好的法秩序。     

The Concept of Jurisprudence*

Abstract. The first part of this article contains (i) considerations as to the relationship between jurisprudence and legal dogmatics, legal philosophy, and sociology of law; (ii) considerations about the status of jurisprudence both as a meta- and an object-theory. These lead to the suggestion that jurisprudence should be defined as a general juristic theory of law and legal science. In the second part, the character and elements of this definition are explained systematically. The article's main thesis is that jurisprudence is not distinguished from legal philosophy and sociology of law by its subject or its method, but by the specifically juristic research aspect or perspective it is based upon.     

Judicial Reform and Rationalization: The Diffusion of Court Reform Policies Among the American States

Explaining the diffusion of judicial reform policies among the American states is an elusive task. Are such policies simply part of the larger policy process revealed in the comparative state policy literature? Or b court reform a policy arena unto itself, responding to factors uniquely legal or professional in nature? Our inquiry begins with Max Weber's sociology of law from which we adopt his concept of rationalization as a schema of policy development. According to Weber, the “rationalization” of legal institutions would accompany the advancement of capitalism in modernizing nations. Thus, we might expect specific judicial reform policies expressly aimed at rationalizing the structure and process of state court systems to be closely associated with each other and with commonly accepted indicators of economic development among the states. As part of our investigation, we relate court reforms to broader policy innovations among the states, drawing on earlier “diffusion of innovations” research. Our data indicate a strong connection between judicial reform and more general patterns of innovation diffusion among the states, but provide only modest support for Weber's assertions about the rationalization of legal systems under advancing capitalism. Three of the selected reforms cluster together and are largely explainable by indicators of economic development. Two other reforms do not fit this pattern, and their “behavior” requires additional discussion and research. Thus, the diffusion of judicial reform policy is partly accounted for by factors found in explanations of general policy innovations across states, but other, as yet unidentified, factors apparently influence certain aspects of judicial reform. The connection between Max Weber's legal sociology and policy development among the American states might at first blush seem remote or tenuous. However, this article attempts to use Weber's insights into modern legal systems to (1) examine a specific area of state policy making–judicial reform–and (2) establish a connection between policy development in the court reform area and the larger literature on general policy innovation in the American states. This inquiry is inspired by the lack of theoretical integration apparent in the literature on court reform, on the one hand, and the absence of empirical analyses connecting court reform data with “diffusion of innovation” policy studies, on the other.     

刑讯逼供的社会学分析——兼谈刑讯逼供研究的拾漏补遗

有关刑讯逼供的理论研究成果颇丰，学者们从法学、经济学、心理学等视角，探讨了刑讯逼供的原因，并提出了对策，但实践中刑讯逼供仍屡有发生。可以引用社会学研究视角，对刑讯逼供的研究从关注其行为的“规范”性因素到“价值”性因素研究；从关注其行为的“单个性”到“互动性”的研究；从关注其行为的“违法性”到“攻击性”的研究；从关注侦查人员的“人权保障者”到“角色冲突”的研究；从关注刑讯逼供的“制度化控制”到“非制度化控制”研究。     

Law's Social Forms: A Powerless Approach to the Sociology of Law

Since the law and society movement in the 1960s, the sociology of law in the United States has been dominated by a power/inequality approach. Based on a sociological distinction between the forms and substances of law, this article outlines a “powerless” approach to the sociology of law as a theoretical alternative to the mainstream power/inequality approach. Following Simmel and the Chicago School of sociology, this new approach analyzes the legal system not by its power relations and patterns of inequality, but by its social forms, or the structures and processes that constitute the legal system's spatial outlook and temporality. Taking a radical stance on power, this article is not only a retrospective call for social theory in law and society research, but also a progressive effort to move beyond US‐centric sociolegal scholarship and to develop new social science tools that explain a larger variety of legal phenomena across the world.     

Sociological interpretations of legal development

This paper seeks to outline some ways in which sociological inquiry has helped to interpret general processes of legal development. It comments on a few aspects of a vast subject. Furthermore, it was commissioned in a specific context of debate: as part of an agenda of discussion of the relative merits and potential of sociological and economic analyses of law. Hence, to provide a setting for what I try to argue about the character and value of sociological interpretations of legal change, it seems appropriate to preface those arguments with some general ideas about the nature of sociological inquiries in legal contexts and about perceived contrasts between the orientation of these inquiries and what I take to be certain orientations in economic analysis of law. Accordingly this paper is in two parts. The first offers a few prefatory remarks on the character of theoretically guided sociological inquiries about law (sociology of law). The second discusses various kinds of interpretation of legal development, which have been offered from the perspectives of sociology of law.     

检察权谦抑性的法理基础

刑事诉讼中的检察权行使,要尽可能地保持克制、妥协、宽容,这就是检察权的谦抑性.检察权的谦抑性是受刑事诉讼法学、刑法学、犯罪社会学和刑事政策学等学科理论和实践发展的深刻影响而形成的.检察权行使的谦抑性最终要由具体的检察官来体现和贯彻,因此,一方面要从立法上人手;另一方面,要通过培养心怀谦抑的检察官入手,从而使刑事法的谦抑理念与检察官内在的谦抑品性相协调.     

宏观调控法若干基本范畴的法理分析

宏观调控是国家权力与市场运行规则契合的重要表现形式,是当代市场经济最突出的一个特点。宏观调控的法治化是历史发展的必然趋势;宏观调控法的基本范畴是宏观调控法治化的理论基础。本文选取了宏观调控法的内涵、本质特征、立法价值和立法基本原则几个基本范畴,在承继学界研究成果的同时,对一些基本的理论问题以及人们观念上的一些误解和偏差,进行了法理分析,提出了“宏观调控法治化”和“宏观调控法理论‘法治化’”的主张,并对其实现途径作了一些探讨。     

Legislation and educational change: the struggle for social justice and quality in China's compulsory schooling

Whether a law can bring about change has been an important topic of debate in the literatures of law, sociology and education. With reference to the 2006 revision of compulsory schooling legislation in China, this article examines the functions and limits of the use of law to effect educational change. It explores why and how China continues to rely on instrumental use of the law to bring about change and rectify problems that the previous legislation did not. The article shows that law can be used as a tool for social justice that helps defend children's right to access basic quality education. However, the realization of legislative change requires favourable economic, social and/or cultural conditions, the support of extra-legal means and a concerted effort by all actors in interpreting and enforcing the law.     

经济法词义解释与理论研究的重心

经济法一词本身有多种理解,其最基本的含义就是与经济相关的法。经济法基础理论研究长期致力于构建所谓经济法学科体系,探求与民商法、行政法不同的所谓经济法特有的范畴、方法和原则,以图证明经济法的独立性的研究路径是错误的。现实社会生活中,政府对经济和市场的干预是通过一定形式的法律规则来实现的,政府对经济活动管制的程度往往会使经济法律规则呈现出不同的特征。中国社会转型期存在许多经济法重点、难点和焦点问题,这些问题急待经济法学者去研究和解决,我们应把研究重点放在具体的法律问题和法律规则上来。就改革方向而言,经济法研究将是从“高管制度经济法”到“中管制度经济法”,最后到“低管制度经济法”演变的过程。     

Balancing Security and Democracy, and the Role of Expertise: Biometrics Politics in the European Union

What is the relationship between security policies and democratic debate, oversight and rights? Does coping with security threats require exceptions to the rule of law and reductions of liberties? The inquiry that follows tries to answer such questions in the context of the European Union and takes the case of biometric identification, an area were security considerations and the possible impact on fundamental rights and the rule of law are at stake. Some hypotheses are explored through the case study: “securitisation” and “democratisation” are in tension but some hybrid strategies can emerge; the plurality of “authoritative actors” influences policy frames and outcomes; and knowledge is a key asset in defining these authoritative actors. A counter-intuitive conclusion is presented, namely that biometrics, which seems prima facie an excellent candidate for technocratic decision-making, sheltered from democratic debate and accountability – is characterised by debate by a plurality of actors. Such pluralism is limited to those actors who have the resources – including knowledge – that allow for inclusion in policy making at EU level, but is nevertheless significant in shaping policy; it explains the central role of the metaphor of balancing security and democracy, as well as the “competitive cooperation” between new and more consolidated policy areas. The EU is facing another difficult challenge in the attempt at establishing itself as a new security actor and as a supranational democratic polity: important choices are at stake to assure that citizens’ security is pursued on the basis of the rule of law, respect of fundamental rights and democratic accountability.     

THE PRESS AND THE JUDICIARY： COURT AND JUDICIAL REPORTS IN THE PREss IN ENGLAND AND WALES

Western scholars have argued that image making and image management are a preoccupation of the judiciary. Images of the judiciary may take a variety of forms and be produced for kinds of audiences. One form of judicial image making and image management is live performances in the courtroom and other court settings. Another is the written judgment where the preoccupation is the style of the written text. Press and other mass media reports of judicial activity are another. The audience for judicial images is equally diverse, from fellow judges, lawyers in the courts and the wider legal community, the litigants before the courts to the executive, legislature and the public both in the courtroom and beyond. The image of the judiciary that is available to the public has a particular significance in Western rule of law democracies. As a general rule courts and the judiciary are required to operate in public and their activities must be open to public scrutiny. A recent policy manifestation of this goal is debated about confidence in the justice system and initiatives designed to improve confidence. In the majority of cases public scrutiny of judicial activity and public confidence in the judiciary relies upon the media. Objective and accurate press and media reports play a key role in shaping public understanding of the judiciary and generating or undermining confidence in that institution. Reports in regional and national newspapers have long been an important source of information, shaping public knowledge and facilitating public scrutiny of the justice system. In the UK, there is almost no scholarship on these representations past or present. The result is little known about the representation of the courts and the judiciary in press reports. Little is known about what the diligent reader of these reports can learn about judicial activity. The aim of this article is to take a first step towards changing that state of affairs. It uses a data set made up of 205 contemporary domestic newspaper reports of court and judi     

Public criminologies

Research Summary Public scholarship aspires to bring social science home to the individuals, communities, and institutions that are its focus of study. In particular, it seeks to narrow the yawning gap between public perceptions and the best available scientific evidence on issues of public concern. Yet nowhere is the gap between perceptions and evidence greater than in the study of crime. Here, we outline the prospects for a public criminology, conducting and disseminating research on crime, law, and deviance in dialogue with affected communities. We present historical data on the media discussion of criminology and sociology, and we outline the distinctive features of criminology—interdisciplinary, a subject matter that incites moral panics, and a practitioner base actively engaged in knowledge production—that push the boundaries of public scholarship. Policy Implications Discussions of public sociology have drawn a bright line separating policy work from professional, critical, and public scholarship. As the research and policy essays published in Criminology & Public Policy make clear, however, the best criminology often is conducted at the intersection of these domains. A vibrant public criminology will help to bring new voices to policy discussions while addressing common myths and misconceptions about crime.     

Islamo-Arabic Culture and Women’s Law: An Introduction to the Sociology of Women’s Law in Islam

The present paper addresses the mutual relationship between society and law in shaping women’s law in Islam from the perspective of the sociology of law. It analyzes the role of pre-Islamic social, political, and economic structures in the Arabian Peninsula in modeling women’s law and highlights some customary laws which were rejected or revived and integrated in Islamic jurisprudence. In this regard, the paper reviews issues such as polygyny, rights to inheritance, marriage, the process of testimony and acceptable forms of evidence in legal matters, diyya (blood money), the exclusion of women from the judiciary and the system of issuing fatwa (legal opinion), natural right of guardianship (wilāya) of underage children after divorce, and regulations related to the veil. Finally, referring to the manner of the Prophet of Islam, the paper suggests that ?urf (custom) can be considered as a source of Islamic legislation alongside other commonly known sources of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence).