Sociology of Law

Sociology of Law

The sociology of law is a branch of legal studies that examines law from a social perspective. It is often considered to have originated with the French philosopher Montesquieu, and is also traced back to Friedrich Carl von Savigny, who emphasized the connection and interaction between legal norms and social reality. The discipline emerged as a true scientific study of law, distinct from traditional legal scholarship, when earlier approaches such as the Free Law Movement and the Jurisprudence of Interests had reduced legal studies to a merely practical technique serving the specific needs of legal practice.

A sociologist of law explores the interaction between law and society, investigating the gap between legal norms and the reality of legal practice. The sociology of law focuses on law as a social fact, rather than as a normative system, distinguishing it from legal hermeneutics (the interpretation of law). Its fundamental nature lies in being a theoretical and empirical science that analyzes the interrelationship between law and society. Within this framework, one domain—either law or society—may serve as the independent variable, while the other functions as the dependent variable to explain causal relationships.

The sociology of law seeks not merely to interpret legal texts but to uncover the social facts underlying the law. Through observation and empirical research, it aims to clarify the true nature of law. It distinguishes between law as a set of enforceable norms established by the state’s judiciary to resolve disputes, and law as a social order that arises within communities and regulates individual behavior in daily life. The latter, considered the fundamental form of law, serves as the main object of study. At the same time, the sociology of law conducts social analysis on the process by which formal legal rules are derived and utilized by legislators and legal professionals.

Recognizing the plurality of forms in which law exists, the sociology of law emphasizes the creative role of legal professionals in shaping law while underscoring the importance of sociological analysis to support this foundation. It is closely connected with both pure sociology of law, which seeks theoretical understanding, and legal hermeneutics, which applies such understanding in practice. Its methodology is empirical and inductive, moving from the concrete to the general, and back again, in a continual process of observation and theory-building.

Although social jurisprudence, which argues that law should serve to achieve the welfare of society as a whole, is closely related to the sociology of law, the two cannot be considered identical.