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Title: The Common Place of Law: Stories from Everyday Life by Patricia Ewick, Susan S. Silbey ISBN: 0-226-22744-8 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: 01 July, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (3 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: An excellent, meticulously researched book.
Comment: The richness of this book comes from four hundred thirty interviews that support the text. The gist of the book is that people have three takes on the law: before the law, against the law, and with the law.
"Before the law" is an attitude of awe and respect for the institution. Faith in that day in court, that statue of blind justice and the policeman is my friend. "Against the law" is an attitude of resistance to the institution. Law as a caprice of the powerful, and resistance the right way to deal with it. "With the law" is an attitude of game playing with the institution. I didn't make the rules, but me and my lawyer, we sure as hell will play the game. People shift and change among these modes depending on where they are in life, the particulars of the situation, and growing experience with the law.
The biggest contribution of this book is in highlighting the game playing aspect of dealing with law. I think game-playing gets short shrift from other law authors who may be stuck inside their very serious institution. Most other books reduce game-playing to simple economic theory and don't pay enough attention to the human side of gaming with the law. I mean, really. Just look at how big the sports section of the Sunday paper is versus the economic analysis section! Games are a big part of everyday life. Ewick & Silbey give game-playing the appropriate type of attention. Big bravo.
My only criticism is that the language of this book is mainly for an academic audience, and thus I give it only four stars-sorry. The writing could be de-academicized and made more powerful and popular. Overall it is an excellent, meticulously researched book
I got the book for its cover-the picture of chairs in newly shoveled parking space. Now that's a real hotbed of attitude in the informal/formal law divide. Thanks to the authors and worker-bees for all their work.
Rating: 5
Summary: Common Place Of Law is anything but common
Comment: The Common Place Of Law is a literate, witty and very well written explanation of how law does and does not work for the people for whom law was created: the common citizen.
Using anecdotal material mixed with sociological theory, Ewing and Silbey have created an intelligent mix of the plebeian and the patrician.
Rating: 5
Summary: A very, very important book for the study of law today.
Comment: This book is accessible to many different audiences and is profound in its content. It would be an excellent book for undergraduate education, legal education or, even for pleasure reading. The anecdotal chapters interspersed with the analysis of the role of law in the lives or ordinary Americans makes this sophisticated book about the sociology of law in contemporary society one that should have staying power in the academy as well as more popular venues. What it has to say about law -- that Americans have a complex and sometimes contradictory relationship with the legal system and its promise of justice -- is not surprising as much as it is affirming and explanatory of so much of what we experience these days in the media and popular culture. The method the authors use to tease their thesis is rigorous and convincing, a model of scholarship for students and professionals. The Common Place of Law is a book to which I will refer and which I will reread for years.
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Title: The Law & Society Reader by Richard L. Abel ISBN: 0814706185 Publisher: New York University Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 1995 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Getting Justice and Getting Even: Legal Consciousness Among Working-Class Americans by Sally Merry Engle ISBN: 0226520692 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 1990 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Law in the Domains of Culture by Austin Sarat, Thomas R. Kearns ISBN: 0472087010 Publisher: University of Michigan Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $20.95 |
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Title: Law in Culture and Society by Laura Nader ISBN: 0520208331 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 1997 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Law/Society: Origins, Interactions, and Change by John Sutton ISBN: 0761987053 Publisher: Pine Forge Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $37.95 |
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