Law and Society Association

Law and Society Association
Name	Law and Society Association
Formation	1964
Type	Learned society
Headquarters	United States
Region served	International
Leader title	President

Law and Society Association is an international scholarly organization dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of law through connections among sociology, political science, history, anthropology, economics, philosophy, psychology, criminology, public policy, literature and gender studies. Founded in the 1960s amid debates over civil rights movement, Cold War legal order, and comparative projects involving Commonwealth of Nations and European Economic Community, the Association links scholars, practitioners, and institutions from North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania to examine law in social context.

History

The Association emerged during a period shaped by landmark events such as the Brown v. Board of Education decision, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the mobilizations around the Vietnam War, attracting scholars influenced by figures associated with Max Weber, Émile Durkheim, Karl Marx, Émile Zola, and later debates sparked by works like The Common Law by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. and Legal Realism proponents such as Karl Llewellyn and Jerome Frank. Early convenings featured participants connected to institutions like Harvard University, Yale University, University of Chicago, Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Michigan, Stanford University, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, London School of Economics, and University of Toronto. Over ensuing decades the Association engaged with comparative dialogues involving Napoleonic Code, Magna Carta, European Convention on Human Rights, and transitional episodes including South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Nuremberg Trials, and post-communist legal reforms in Poland and Russia.

Mission and Activities

The Association promotes interdisciplinary research connecting scholars from sociology of law networks anchored by programs at Princeton University, Yale Law School, Columbia Law School, NYU School of Law, and University of California, Los Angeles with practitioners from American Bar Association, International Criminal Court, United Nations, World Bank, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, European Court of Human Rights, and advocacy groups such as American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International. Activities include promoting scholarship on topics like due process, administrative law, constitutionalism, family law reform in contexts of United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, China, India, and Brazil, and fostering comparative work tied to projects at Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Scandinavian Studies, and regional centers such as African Studies Association and Latin American Studies Association.

Organizational Structure and Governance

Governance is led by an elected President drawn from faculty at institutions including University of California, Berkeley School of Law, Cornell University, Duke University, University of Chicago Law School, or Georgetown University Law Center, with support from an Executive Council, standing committees, and editorial boards that liaise with publishers like Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, University of Chicago Press, and Stanford University Press. The Association partners with funding bodies such as the National Science Foundation, Social Science Research Council, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Ford Foundation and coordinates with scholarly entities including American Sociological Association, American Political Science Association, American Historical Association, American Anthropological Association, Law and Society Trust, and regional bodies like European Consortium for Political Research.

Conferences and Publications

Annual meetings rotate among cities tied to universities such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Toronto, London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Rome, Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney, and Mexico City, featuring panels with scholars affiliated with programs at Harvard Kennedy School, Johns Hopkins University, Brown University, University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers University, Indiana University Bloomington, Washington University in St. Louis, University of California, Irvine, Peking University, Tsinghua University, and National University of Singapore. Publications produced or affiliated with the Association include journals and edited volumes appearing in venues like Law & Society Review, monographs published by Oxford University Press, special issues in American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, Journal of Legal Studies, and collaborative projects with repositories such as SSRN and databases maintained by institutions like HeinOnline and JSTOR.

Awards and Grants

The Association administers awards and grants honoring scholarship associated with figures and prizes named after leading intellectuals and institutions including tributes resonant with the legacies of Roscoe Pound, Eugene V. Rostow, Lon L. Fuller, H.L.A. Hart, Gunther Teubner, Martha Minnow, Robert Cover, and others, and offers funding streams supported by foundations such as the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Rockefeller Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, and Spencer Foundation. Competitive fellowships enable research tied to archives like the Library of Congress, Bodleian Library, British Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and specialized collections at law schools including Yale Law School Library and Harvard Law School Library.

Membership and Chapters

Membership draws academics, students, judges, lawyers, and policymakers affiliated with assorted entities such as American Association of Law Libraries, Association of American Law Schools, International Association of Legal Science, and regional chapters spanning Midwest Law and Society, Northeast Law and Society, Southern Law and Society, European Law and Society, Latin American Law and Society, and networks linking researchers at University of Buenos Aires, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Universidade de São Paulo, University of Cape Town, University of Nairobi, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, McGill University, and University of Melbourne.

Category:Learned societies