ABSTRACT
Law and economics is a late development in economics; similarly, the law and society movement is about two generations old. In the past, sociology paid very little attention to law, with some famous and honorable exceptions. The most important exception, of course, was Max Weber, whose writings on the sociology of law are still fruitful sources of insights. Law schools, of course, had hardly any interest in how society worked at all. The law and society movement is, in other words, something of a success. On the other hand, it is much more fragmented than, say, the law and economics movement, and it never had the money that some foundations, the Olin Foundation, for example, plowed into law and economics, in a number of law schools. Within the law and society movement there is not much of a common core or canon.
