Sociology of Law & Political Sociology

The scope of forensic psychiatry as a field is defined by the application of psychiatry to questions of  justice. Its mission is to study and evaluate the relationships between mental illness and criminalityand violence. In the narrow sense of the term, it refers to the clinical evaluation of the mental stateof defendants or victims in the context of criminal trials or civil lawsuits (e.g. private insurancecompanies). In the wider sense, the term refers to questions of care and evaluation within prisons,special hospitals or ordinary contexts – although the meaning varies according to country.

This paper revisits the sociology of international commercial arbitration on the
basis of unexploited archives and data. This material casts new light on the
competition between “grand old men” and “young technocrats” in the 1980s
and 1990s, a theme that has structured the analysis of international commercial
arbitration since the pioneering work of Yves Dezalay and Bryant G. Garth
(Dealing in Virtue). In contrast, the data show that the crucial transformative
period actually took place between the 1950s and 1970s, when a relatively welldefined
group of individuals emerged as the leading arbitrators at the International
Chamber of Commerce. These individuals— the “secant marginals”—
succeeded in constructing a cooperative interface (rather than competition)
between otherwise separate legal systems and professions. In doing so, they created
the conditions necessary for the emergence of a new transnational legal
profession. At a more general level, the article proposes an alternative narrative
of globalization, wherein actors operating at the intersection of various systems,
create new arenas of governance on the basis of inter-system cooperation.

"Representations", N. 129, Winter 2015.

The essay analyzes the project of maintaining the body of V. I. Lenin in the Mausoleum in Moscow for the past ninety years, focusing on the unique biological science that developed around this project, and the unexpected political role this body has performed.

This paper focuses on some of the current socio-legal developments in trade and investment field and the related trend towards greater standardisation of national societal regulations based on international voluntary standards. The standards addressed here are international process , or management-based standards. Given the space limits, it will mainly concentrate on the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) standards. Companies generally voluntarily adopt those in order to carry a "social" license to operate, as today it's the way to underline their good governance credentials. In transboundary trade transactions, obtaining such social licenses can be crucial for importing and exporting firms alike, as well as for countries within which those firms operate. International technical standards of ISO are usually developed by professional associations, i.e. accredited standard-setting bodies that provide scientific and quality assurances, acting as professional facilitators of a consensual process. However, since the late 20th century, the ISO and similar global standard-setting entities also - and indeed increasingly - provide process assurances. Both growing demand for and supply of those new mechanisms appear to reflect ever-greater "race to efficiency" , hence an increasing need for a readily available and easily used data, concepts, and knowledge to inform and legitimise transnational decision-making bypassing any national or international public structure. For example, regulating various process assurances was traditionally rather a public regulation business: different national and European Union regulations may well illustrate that. With the ever-intensifying economic globalisation, however, our society has seen an unprecedented rise of all kinds of new non-state initiatives seeming to fill the gaps left by states in the new global organisation of society. The puzzle of this story is that, unlike simple indicators, the standards addressed here are likely to act as global normative benchmarks, a universal social reference, most of the time containing obligations and backed by sanctions, though non-legal, or else "informal".

The article discusses the conflicts taking place in public life over interpretation of the significance of places of national memory. The author presents them on the example of the dispute that arose in Spain over a memorial in the Catalan city of Tortosa. It commemorates
the Battle of the Ebro, the military operation of the largest scale and consequences during the Spanish Civil War. The opponents of the memorial consider it as a testimony to the victory of Francoism and an unsightly and disgraceful element in the urban tissue. They appeal for its liquidation, while those arguing for its preservation and reinterpretation of the symbolic meaning treat it as an architecturally valuable distinguishing feature of the city. The fate of the controversial memorial does not rest solely in the hands of local authorities, but it has become a subject of political disagreement, disputes among residents and non-governmental activities. They are taking place against a background of the current legal basis of historical memory (Law 52/2007 of 26 December), which was developed by the political Left to compensate for the harm done to the victims of the Civil War and the Francoist dictatorship, and to implement changes in public space in connection with the traces of Francoism. However, its content leaves quite a big decision-making margin to the public authorities as to removing the traces of the regime from reinterpretation.

This article analyzes the relationship between Roma people and the law by combining two different theoretical approaches, one focusing on legal culture, the other drawing on critical Romani studies. The resulting analytical model supports: 1) the adoption of a multi-level and interpretative approach to examining legal culture, and 2) the focus on the processes of racialization and discrimination implemented by the dominant society, especially within the legal field. The analysis brings to light the mutually-influencing relations between dominant stereotypes about Roma and Sinti people on the one hand, and Italy's legal culture and sentencing on the other. This topic is examined in relation to the Italian and the wider European historical, political and cultural context, since the way in which legal actors see Roma and Sinti people is strongly influenced by their social and political milieu, and by historically-originated dominant cultural repertoires.

15-no-30-junio-2021/economia-globalizada Resumo: O presente trabalho tem como escopo analisar as transformações sofridas pelo Estado ao longo do Século XX, com recorte histórico com marco inicial no ano de 1914, com o objetivo de expor o Estado como uma estrutura universal que haverá de permanecer em transformação e destacar suas etapas de declínio e desenvolvimento, procurando englobar os mais variados fatores que compuseram a atual configuração do que se entende por Estado no mundo globalizado. A metodologia utilizada é a analítico-dedutiva com técnica de pesquisa teórico-bibliográfica, descrevendo aportes teóricos sobre a primeira guerra mundial e seus reflexos nos estados-nação, sobre a revolução russa e o totalitarismo, sobre a segunda guerra mundial e a guerra fria, sobre a chamada era de ouro e suas consequentes mudanças sociais e culturais, destacando a configuração dos estados-nação no final do século XX com a crise do socialismo real e democratização do estado europeu os cenários no fim do século, apontando, à guisa de conclusão, a orientação pela reorganização do Estado frente ao policentrismo na economia globalizada.

This article outlines a new approach to the law of political economy as a form of transformative law, a new approach that combines a focus on the function of law with a concept of law encapsulating the triangular dialectics between the form-giving prestation of law, the material substance the law is oriented against, and the transcendence of legal forms—that is, the rendering of compatibility between forms. Transformative law thereby serves as an alternative to both law and economics and recently emerging culturalist and neo-Marxist approaches. The timing of this publication is not coincidental. The era of neoliberalism—that is, of structural liberalism, which started in the 1970s and experienced its breakthrough in the 1980s and 1990s after the collapse of structural Marxism—is ending. This makes the question of what will succeed the neoliberal episteme pertinent.

This article draws on the postcolonial legal theories and the concept of imaginative geographies, aiming to shed light on the process of producing and realizing Israeli representations of the Negev Desert through the implementation of legal regulations. The focus is on chosen imaginations of the Negev Desert, researched here as a case study of material realisation of imaginative geographies. In the analysis, symbolic narratives, visions of spaces, and new categories, intertwined in legal acts as their foundations, justifications and goals are underlined. The conclusions of presented study show that imaginations and visions can be in fact reproduced in space through legal regulations, and in the analysed case law has three aspects: it is an expression of imagined geographies; it translates those visions into technical terms; and lastly, the implementation of its provisions becomes the main instrument of producing those representations in reality.

This article analyzes the dramaturgical perspective of Heinrich von Kleist’s novella and General Art director of Thalia Theater Antú Romero Nunes’ play Michael Kohlhaas in the sense of modern law and justice, the conflict between sovereignty and legitimacy, and the relationship between force and right. Both the novella and play of Michael Kohlhaas question the conflict of legality, legitimacy, and the sense of justice. Since the story of Kohlhaas has been a canonical work for both different artistic productions and sociology of law for two centuries, this article offers a conversation among Kleist's novella, Nunes' play, and the sociological analysis of modern law. From an interdisciplinary point of view, the article examines the construction and interpretation of the story of Michael Kohlhaas.

Keywords: Antú Romero Nunes, Heinrich Von Kleist, Legitimacy, Michael Kohlhaas, Sociology of Law

Ce dossier de LeGes édite neuf communications présentées lors d'une journée d'études consacrée à la révision totale de la Constitution fédérale de 1874. Tenue le 25 janvier 2013 à l'Université de Neuchâtel, cette journée a constitué une opportunité tout à fait exceptionnelle d'engager un dialogue avec des acteurs de premier plan du processus de révision constitutionnelle. Elle s'inscrivait dans un projet plus large, financé par le Fonds national suisse de la recherche scientifique (FNS), intitulé « Droit et politique dans la révision totale de la Constitution fédérale de la Suisse», dont l'objectif très général était de penser le rapport entre droit et politique tel qu'il s'est réalisé dans le cadre de la révision totale. L'ensemble des contributions est précédé de deux textes rédigés par des membres de l'équipe ayant conduit la recherche FNS et organisé la journée d'études. Le premier, « Droit et politique dans la révision totale de la Constitution fédérale » revient sur les ambitions du projet FNS et présente les attendus spécifiques de la journée d'études. Le second, « L'écriture constitutionnelle : dispositions juridiques et réalisation politique », vise à replacer les neuf contributions dans le cadre plus large des séquences de la révision totale de la Constitution fédérale. Enfin, les neuf contributions sont suivies d'une conclusion générale, « La révision constitutionnelle entre contraintes politiques et expertises juridiques », qui se propose d'intégrer les réflexions des acteurs de la révision constitutionnelle dans une analyse des relations entre les dimensions juridiques et politiques du processus de révision totale.