The Center for the Study of Lew and Society in the University of California, Berkeley, is one of the most important of all the institutes which are now making a study of the sociology of law. It was established in 1961, and since then it has done a lot of research related to problems of law and its function in a society. Philip Selznick, one of the leaders of the research program in the Center, has been particularly active having tried to construct a fundamental research category, eg.,
legality, and showed interest in the private government.
Recently, however, this research direction (after Philippe Nonet, "
Berkeley Perspective") has been criticized very severely by Donald Black, a sociologist. Black attacks the Berkeley Perspective on the grounds that it is political because of exaggreated attention to a Positivtistic position, and regards Selznick as a natural-law advocate. Black insists that a socio-legal study should be done within the context of "
Pure" sociology of law rather than within the context of "
Applied" sociology of law. He also persists in avoiding a value judgement and believes in rigid separation of legal fact and legal value.
Contrary to Black, Nonet defends the Berkeley Perspective. Nonet insists that it should be vital in the interest of the sociology of law to consider the effectiveness of law to some degree and the relation between law and legal policy. He also insists that we should start working for the purpose of realizing legal values. Thus, this essay attempts to introduce this debate between Black and Nonet. It comments on some of the important issues of this discussion within the context of the methodological problems in the sociology of law in Japan.
This essay is divided into the following chapters:
I. Introduction
II. On the Berkeley Perspective
III. A Critique of Donald Black
IV. A Refutation of Philippe Nonet
V. Some Comments and Conclusion.
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