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The Place of Law (The Amherst Series In Law, Jurisprudence, And Social Thought)

The Place of Law (The Amherst Series In Law, Jurisprudence, And Social Thought)

Current price: $30.95
Publication Date: April 3rd, 2006
Publisher:
University of Michigan Press
ISBN:
9780472031580
Pages:
200

Description

It has long been standard practice in legal studies to identify the place of law within the social order. And yet, as The Place of Law suggests, the meaning of the concept of "the place of law" is not self-evident.
This book helps us see how the law defines territory and attempts to keep things in place; it shows how law can be, and is, used to create particular kinds of places -- differentiating, for example, individual property from public land. And it looks at place as a metaphor that organizes the way we see the world. This important new book urges us to ask about the usefulness of metaphors of place in the design of legal regulation.

About the Author

Austin Sarat is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College.

Lawrence Douglas is Professor of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought at Amherst College.

Martha Merrill Umphrey is Associate Professor of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought at Amherst College.

Praise for The Place of Law (The Amherst Series In Law, Jurisprudence, And Social Thought)

"The Place of Law is a worthy successor to an outstanding series of edited collections on law and culture. The essays range from the Stalinist Soviet Union to the scientific laboratory, from the Internet to the nation-state and back; they explore why places and metaphors of places seem to matter so much to law, and how new structures of freedom may produce new forms of control."
—Jack M. Balkin, Yale Law School

— Jack M. Balkin, Yale Law School

"Recent scholarship has rediscovered the spatial dimension of society. This volume brings together some of the leading lights of that revival with some of the most innovative scholars in sociolegal studies, to reconsider the place of law and law's capacity to put people in their place. At a time when power relentlessly promotes a generic version of the rule of law as a mandatory salvation for all peoples and places, The Place of Law offers a vital rejoinder."
—Jonathan Simon, University of California, Berkeley

— Jonathan Simon, University of California, Berkeley