Abstract
To understand the development of the sociology of law in America, one should view it in the context of a society characterized by three fundamental conflicts. First, American society asserts an egalitarian value system, yet displays quite apparent social stratification, including something like a caste distinction. Second, although a strong tradition of local autonomy, direct citizen participation in government, and primary group controls persists in the minds of many Americans, the country itself is presently more urban than rural, national than local, and its systems of social control and communication are becoming increasingly depersonalized. Finally, although America often visualizes itself as a nation composed of individual capitalists, the major economic power of the nation is held by large scale organizations — government, business corporations, also labor unions — in which the social, economic, and political fate of thousands, sometimes millions, can be determined by the decisions of relatively few persons.
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Reference
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America,New York: Knopf, 1945, Vol. I, Chaps. 6, 8, 16 and 17.
James Bryce, The American Commonwealth, London: Macmillan, 1888, Vol. 1, Chapters 22–24, 42; Vol. II, Chapter 105. For a portrait of the judiciary similar to Bryce’s, see Wallace Sayre and Herbert Kaufman, Governing New York City, New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1960.
See “The Path of the Law,” Harv. L. Rev.,10 (1897), PP- 457-478.
Philip Selznick, “The Sociology of Law,” in Robert Merton. Leonard Broom, and Leonard S. Cottrell, Jr. (eds.), Sociology Today, New York: Basic Books, 1959, p. 118.
See his Jurisprudence: Realism in Theory and Practice,Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962.
See his Law and the Modern Mind,New York: Coward-McCann, 1930. Also Courts on Trial,Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1949.
Hans Zeisel, “Social Research on the Law,” in William Evan (ed.), Law and Sociology, New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1962, p. 138.
Fred Strodtbeck, “Social Process, The Law, and Jury Functioning,” in Evan, op. cit.,pp. 152ff; also see Strodtbeck, Rita M. James, and Charles Hawkins, “Social Status in Jury Deliberations,” American Sociological Review,22 (December, 1957), pp. 713–719. A projected volume by Strodtbeck and Kalven will report on the experimental jury work carried out at the University of Chicago. Another by Kalven, Zeisel, Strodtbeck, Barton, James, et al.,will examine the difference the backgrounds of individual jurors make in the way they decide cases. Still another projected work (The Juror Speaks) by Zeisel and Broeder will report on materials obtained from post-trial juror interviews.
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© 1968 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Skolnick, J.H. (1968). The Sociology of Law in America. In: Treves, R., van Loon, J.F.G. (eds) Norms and Actions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-0790-5_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-0790-5_10
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