ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the social context and the specific legal change that the theorists analyze rather than gauge their arguments by reference to more legal change. The rise of the welfare state provoked many theorists to examine the extent of the changes introduced into modern legal institutions. A more sociological understanding of the law of the welfare state in light of the state's changed responsibilities emerges from Roberto linger's Law in Modem Society: Toward a Criticism of Social Theory. Liberal societies are distinctive by virtue of their supplementation of the public and positive rules of aristocratic society by the rule of law, defined by its autonomy from other social spheres on the one hand, and the generality of its legal rules on the other. A transformation in the structure of legal rules is central in Francois Ewald's analysis of the law of the welfare state, where "social law" makes its appearance for the first time.
