The Handbook of Law and Society

Fifty years have passed since the establishment of this multi–disciplinary and rapidly expanding field and since that time, the field has grown to encompass an array of disciplines, methods, perspectives and purposes. Bringing a timely synthesis to the field, The Handbook of Law and Society presents a comprehensive overview of key research findings, theoretical developments, and methodological controversies in the field of law and society.

Contributions from 36 international scholars working across the disciplines of legal studies and social sciences explore the fields expanding frontiers. Utilizing a global approach to law and society, chapters address a wide range of topics that include the widening gap between codified laws and law in action , problems in the implementation of legal decisions, law s constitutive role in shaping society, the importance of law in everyday life, ways legal institutions both embrace and resist change, the impact of new media and technologies on law, intersections of law and identity, law s relationship to social consensus and conflict, and many more. Chapters provide in–depth coverage of each topic, including its evolution, current state, and directions for future research.

Informed by the latest scholarship, The Handbook of Law and Society is an invaluable resource for myriad issues relating to the complex relationship between society and the legal process in the twenty–first century world.

Patricia Ewick is Professor of Sociology at Clark University. She is the co–author of The Common Place of Law (1998) and Social Science, Social Policy and Law (1999). She is also former co–editor of Studies in Law, Politics and Society and former Associate Editor of the Law & Society Review.

Austin Sarat is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College and Hugo L. Black Visiting Senior Scholar at the University of Alabama School of Law. He is the author or editor of more than 90 books, including Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America s Death Penalty (2014); When the State Kills: Capital Punishment in Law, Politics, and Culture (2002); The Blackwell Companion to Law and Society (Wiley Blackwell, 2004); and Mercy on Trial: What It Means to Stop an Execution (2007).