About the Book

This book is partly constitutive of the major theme which predominates the analysis of law as a mode of reproduction of social order. Some of the articles additionally emphasise the pedagogic dimension and effectivity of that mode, others emphasise its rhetorical dimension.

The contributors to this book do not claim to be identically engaged in the same ideological enterprise. The authors are lawyers, one is political scientist with some training, the rest are sociologists. None of them, however, claims to have written from a position of scientific neutrality. Each of them hopes that the articles produced here will contribute to a scientific knowledge of law within capitalism.

Contents

Part One: Theory

Max Weber’s Sociology of Law: A Critique – Paul Walton              

Perspectives in the Sociology of Law – Alan Hunt             

Part Two: Law as a Mode of Reproduction of the Social Order

Conspiracy Law, Class and Society – Robert Spicer           

Rent and Rent Legislation in the U.K. 1915-1972 – Piers Beirne    

The Irish Republican Army and its Community: A Struggle for Legitimacy – Frank Burton                                

Part Three: Women and Law

The Myth of Judicial Neutrality: The Male Monopoly Cases – Albie Sachs 

Women at Work: A Lawyer Discusses the Legislation Relating to Women Employees – Judith Mayhew

Law as an Instrument of Repression or Reform – Margherita Rendel      

Part Four: Legal Profession and Judicial Process

Pre-trial Procedures and Construction of Conviction – Doreen J. McBarnet

The Jury in the Legal System – Geoff Mungham & Zenon Bankowski

About the Author / Editor

Pat Carlen, Lecturer in Criminology, Department of Law, University of Keele.