ALSBTALK:

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2350359 
"Is There a Canon of Law and Society?"

Carroll Seron
University of California, Irvine School of Law; Department of Criminology, Law & Society

Susan Bibler Coutin
University of California, Irvine School of Law

Pauline White Meeusen
University of California, Irvine - Department of Criminology, Law and Society

November 5, 2013
Annual Review of Law & Society, Vol.9, 2013, pp.287-306
UC Irvine School of Law Research Paper No. 2013-153

Abstract:     
As an interdisciplinary field, law and society has an ambivalent relationship with the notion of a canon: Being a field requires having a recognized set of key texts, even as this particular field's critique of doctrinal legal analysis creates an openness toward alternative perspectives.  Within the interdisciplinary field of law and society itself, there is debate about the breadth of disciplines relevant to this domain of inquiry.  To explore this tension, we analyze three sources:  
(a) addresses delivered by presidents of the US Law and Society Association (LSA), (b) LSA meeting calls, and (c) law and society/social science syllabi.  Presidential addresses and meeting calls demonstrate how the boundaries of the field are established and contested, and course syllabi suggest a degree of consensus about key works.  We conclude by discussing other national and regional research traditions and note that these critique law and society/social sciences canons for being overly United States focused or Eurocentric.  We argue that such contestation underscores the health and vibrancy of law and society research.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 21

Keywords: jurisprudence, sociolegal studies, law and society, disputing
Accepted Paper Series


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Date posted: November 7, 2013  
Suggested Citation

Seron, Carroll and Coutin, Susan Bibler and White Meeusen, Pauline, Is There a Canon of Law and Society? (November 5, 2013). Annual Review of Law & Society, Vol.9, 2013, pp.287-306; UC Irvine School of Law Research Paper No. 2013-153. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2350359

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