Abstract
A critical review by a sociologist of law of the postwar study of labor law was presented at the Spring Assembly of the Japanese Association of Sociology of Law in 1962. It has caused a hot discussion as to how much achievement the scholar of labor law has made from the standpoint of sociology of law or social science. The writer raises questions on that criticism as an attorney in labor law as follows:
(1) The first criticism was that scholars of labor law have been inclined to isolate themselves from those of other legal sciences by limiting their activity to the interpretation of labor statutes, whereas they should have furnished sociology of law with the most powerful stimulus to its development. The writer's answer to this is that their isolation does not mean their negligence in social sciences because it is the result brought about by the particular historical situation of Japanese labor law and the study of it, that is, the very short history since its beginning after World War II.
(2) The writer does not give a blanket consent to the opinion of the critic that the development of sociology of law is indispensable for the effective interpretation of law for winning in the law suit. According to the writer, sociology of law, which is interested in the contradictory factors of the capitalistic legal system. and interpretation of law, which aims to persuade judges engaged on the application of that system as it is, are founded on different bases while their cooperation is required for their further development. Therefore, their cooperation cannot be expected until the sociologist of law furnishes interpretation of labor law with scientifical principles enough to be applied to individual cases.
(3) Even when these principles of the sociology of labor law would be furnished, another difficulty woultd appear, the writer states, that it was not easy to apply them in practice to individual cases because of their complicated and various backgrounds.
Finally, the writer adds a comment that his opinion stated above should not be understood as that denying the significant role of sociology of law for the development of the study of labor law, but as that expecting the development of the former for that of the latter.
