ABSTRACT
This chapter examines in general terms the theoretical usefulness of a concept of legal culture. It focuses on the attempt by the American legal sociologist Lawrence Friedman since the late 1960s to elaborate and apply such a concept. The chapter examines Friedman's various formulations and applications, over a period of more than a quarter of a century, of a concept of legal culture. It asks in what circumstances the concept of legal culture may, despite these problems, be valuable in social studies of law and how far some of the theoretical aims for comparative sociology of law sought by developing the concept of legal culture can be pursued by other means. The chapter identifies main problems, with the concept of legal culture, that relate to, the definition of the concept; the varieties of legal culture and their relationships; the causal significance and mechanisms of legal culture; and the explanatory significance of the concept.
