 
    Although most law schools recognize the value of introducing students to a broader sociological perspective on law, this usually falls short of a full engagement with sociology as an academic discipline. This text introduces a wide range of sociological traditions, and how they can be used in investigating law and legal institutions. It is organized into six sections on classical sociology of law, structural functionalism and systems theory, critical approaches, interpretive approaches, postmodernism and pluralism and globalization, and a conclusion that discusses the relationship between law and sociology. Each of the chapters is written by a specialist who reviews the literature, and discusses how the approach can be used in researching different topics.
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The essays in the collection were committed with specific requirements to the writers that the articles be written in a way that can be easily understandable by general readers. The finished book, as it is now, fulfills the wishes of the authors. Whether sociology of law, the study of law and society, or law and social theory as a discipline belongs to sociology or jurisprudence may prove to be relatively unimportant, but the service this volume has provided for such a field is enormously great.Yu Xingzhong, The Chinese University of Hong KongThe Law and Politics Book ReviewMarch 2003Banakar's and Travers' 'Introduction to Law and Social Theory' contains some valuable essays useful mainly to undergraduate studentsEmmanuel MelissarisModern Law ReviewSeptember 2003there is no doubt that this book is an excellent 'state of the discipline' account of a discipline whose connections with the themes constitutive of 'modernity' may never be untied.Philip HarrisThe Law TeacherApril 2004
Reza Banakar is a Reader in Law at the University of Westminster.Max Travers teaches at the University of Tasmania.
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