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Self-sufficiency of Law

A Critical-institutional Theory of Social Order

  • Book
  • © 2012

Overview

Authors:
  1. Mariano Croce

    1. , Department of Philosophy, Sapienza - University of Rome, Rome, Italy

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  • A complete overview of the most recent research outcomes in three areas, legal positivism, legal pluralism and legal institutionalism
  • Offers reasons for removing the barriers between philosophy, sociology and anthropology
  • Suggests important guidelines for empirical research and politics in Western and non-Western countries

Part of the book series: Law and Philosophy Library (LAPS, volume 99)

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Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxix
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  2. Law as a Complex Practice: The Rule-Based Model

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-4
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  3. Law as a complex practice: the rule-based model

    1. Legal Theory as a Scientific Discipline and the Variety of Rules

      • Mariano Croce
      Pages 5-18

    2. Legal Validity and the Problem of Rule-Acceptance

      • Mariano Croce
      Pages 19-29

    3. Reflective Acceptance: Reasons for Action and Criterion-Rules

      • Mariano Croce
      Pages 31-48

    4. The Legal Practice and Its (Vanishing) Borders

      • Mariano Croce
      Pages 49-63

  4. Law as a Selective Practice: The Social and the Legal

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 65-66
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  5. Law as a selective practice: the social and the legal

    1. The Pluralist Divide

      • Mariano Croce
      Pages 67-97

    2. Legal Pluralism Revised: Law as the Product of Selection

      • Mariano Croce
      Pages 99-112

    3. Classic Institutionalism: Jural Reality and Legal Selection

      • Mariano Croce
      Pages 113-126

    4. Exploring the Jural Continuum

      • Mariano Croce
      Pages 127-145

  6. The Law as a Special Practice: Legal Field and Social Reality

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 147-149
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  7. The law as a special practice: legal field and social reality

    1. Negotiating Reality: Knowledge and Categories in the Legal Field

      • Mariano Croce
      Pages 151-176

    2. The Ritual Dimension of Law: Normality, Normativity, and Critique

      • Mariano Croce
      Pages 177-193

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 195-216
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Keywords

About this book

The book investigates the role of law and legal experts in the organisational dynamics of a population, demonstrating that law is a stable practice among those who (in virtue of the special knowledge they master) are called upon to select the ‘normative facts’ of a population, i.e. the interactional standards that are proclaimed as binding for the entire population by the publicly recognised legal experts (whose peremptory judgments can be only revised by peers). It proposes an integration of the recent research outcomes achieved in three different areas of study: legal positivism, legal institutionalism and legal pluralism and examines the notions of rule, coercion, institution, practice elaborated by significant theorists in the mentioned areas and illumine both their merits and flaws. Furthermore it advances a notion of law and a description of the legal field which are able to account for the nature of the legal filed as the cradle of the social order. new back cover copy: In an era characterized by a streaking global pluralism, the collapse of many state agencies, the emergence of multiple sources of law, and the rise of informal justice, the idea of a unitary and homogenous legal system seems old-fashioned. But philosophers, sociologists and anthropologists still hold many debates on the nature of law and its function, which is that law represents an institution that characterizes any orderly social context of human beings, and this book plunges into the center of those debates. Self-sufficiency of Law: A Critical-institutional Theory of Social Order investigates the role of law and legal experts in the organizational dynamics of a population. It demonstrates that law is a stable practice among those who are called upon to select the “normative facts” of a population, that is, the interactional standards that are proclaimed as binding for the entire population by the publicly recognized legal experts. To do this, the author proposes anintegration of the recent research outcomes achieved in three different areas of study—legal positivism, legal institutionalism and legal pluralism. He examines the notions of rule, coercion, institution and practice elaborated on by significant theorists in these fields, highlighting both the merits and flaws and ultimately advancing a notion of law and a description of the legal field which are able to account for the nature of the legal field as the cradle of social order. This text covers key guidelines for empirical research and political activities in Western and non-Western countries.

Authors and Affiliations

  • , Department of Philosophy, Sapienza - University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Mariano Croce

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