ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to address from 'Living Law' to the 'Death of the Social'. It asks: what is sociology for legal theorists, especially for jurists pursuing theoretical inquiries about the nature of law as doctrine, ideas and reasoning? And, by contrast, what is sociology for sociologists? Can an inquiry into the awareness which sociology's practitioners have of its nature as a scholarly practice and field help to clarify relationships between legal theory and sociology? The chapter begins by noting E. Ehrlich's equation of legal theory with sociology of law. One might say he equates it with sociology, since his view of law, including 'living law' or social norms, is so broad. Sociology's intellectual discomforts suggest not its weakness but its inherently reflexive character. The aim of sociology is to study systematically and empirically the nature of the social. Some jurists have taken methods, theories, or traditions of professionalized sociology very seriously, adopting them directly in their work.
