"Story" and the Sociology of Law

Abstract

This article attempts to offer some suggestions concerning possible contributions that the concept and model of "narrative" can make to studies in law and society. It first critically evaluates two American studies (the one by Peter Manning and the other by Bennett and Feldman) in which significance and validity of narrative models are recognized and appreciated. The article then examines some common difficulties and weaknesses involved in their narrative models, and seek to remedy the weaknesses to devise a more appropriate model of story with the aid of Greimasian semiotic model of narrative. In the concluding part, the paper points to a particular nexus that connects the narrative model and a traditional problem in the sociology of law: that of "legal culture."