Book Review: Combining the Legal and the Social in the Sociology of Law
Hydén, H., Cotterrell, R., Nelken, D., & Schultz, U. (Eds.). (2023). Combining the Legal and the Social in Sociology of Law: An Homage to Reza Banakar. Bloomsbury Academic. https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/61932
This review was originally published in the network magazine of the British Sociological Association (BSA).
How do you review or even assess such a book, as it is brought to us in the form of Combining the Legal and the Social in the Sociology of Law. An Homage to Reza Banakar? In more than 470 pages and 34 chapters, many authors in the field of socio-legal studies and the sociology of law discuss the complex relationship between the social and the law from a broad variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives.
This collection is thereby, as the title already says, an homage to the thinking and the life of the recently-passed Reza Banakar. Reza Banakar was born in Iran and studied philosophy, law, and sociology at Lund University in Sweden, where he also received his PhD in sociology of law, and where he later, after a stay in the UK, held a chair in sociology of law. His work reflected not only the interdisciplinary nature of sociology of law, but also the international differences in legal cultures and their historical genealogy, as well as (late) modern ideas of western legal systems.
The edited volume provides an overview of the rich and extensive work of Reza Banakar through the lens of multiple scholars who were directly or indirectly influenced by his work. It is a testament of the importance and the impact Reza Banakar had, both as a scholar and as a human being. Each chapter not only discusses the intellectual merits of Reza Banakar’s legacy, but also touches on the relationships between the authors and Reza Banakar. This gives the collection both a scholarly value and a deeply human touch. After reading the many chapters I had the impression that Reza Banakar was a person that I would have liked to meet. And this feature is rarely seen, even in homages.
To call this collection extensive would be an understatement. The book is partitioned into six sections: introduction, theoretical debates, methods and interdisciplinarity, comparative legal cultures, sociology of law as a science, and applied sociology of law. Each of these sections consists of interesting contributions from a wide range of scholars, culminating in a total of 34 chapters. The prospective reader should be already familiar with the field to a certain extent, as otherwise some of the references from two or more different disciplines are not easy to digest. Concepts from legal theory, social theory and sociological methodology are being brought into conversation to not only show where frictions occur in the interdisciplinary field of socio-legal studies, but also how they might be made productive in concert. This demands a lot from the reader and as such it might not be suitable as an introduction to the field. What the book does, however, is to highlight the relation between the social and the law from many different perspectives, including ethnomethodology, systems theory, legal theory, and even through the lens of literary studies. As such, this book is a must-read for anyone who wants to have a comprehensive overview of the field of sociology of law and does not shy away from debating the different paradigmatic, theoretical and methodological perspectives.
Reza Banakar argued that sociology of law is a “step-child”, uncomfortably situated between law and academic sociology. Both fields have their own paradigms, methods and theories. Yet, sociology of law, according to Reza Banakar, cannot and should not become a mere sub-field of either, but develop its own disciplinary identity with a core of shared theories, methods and paradigms. This is a position that can and has been challenged, which is also highlighted in several contributions in the book. Thus, the homage to Reza Banakar can also be read as a reflexive moment on this uncomfortable but undeniably productive position of the sociology of law and its difficulties finding its place in the academic landscape.
Of course, such a comprehensive exhibition of topics and approaches comes with its own challenges. The single contributions are rather short, which leaves sometimes questions open that could have been addressed in a more in-depth discussion. With its over 470 pages this indicates at the same time the rich and comprehensive legacy of Reza Banakar. And it might also be a testament of the plurality of perspectives of a field that still seems to be a “step-child” of the disciplines of law and sociology. Thus, the edited volume is not only a great (advanced) overview of the field of the sociology of law, but also enacts the described multiplicity of its identity – which makes it an even more valuable contribution to the field and the debate.
