aktuálne čítanie [SK: current reading]

Prague was pretty back in 2013. 

Now that I spend some of my time (not enough, it feels) reading articles for my thesis, I have come across a lot of interesting texts. There are two academics/writers that I would like to mention here.

Firstly, Jürgen Habermas. Anyone having anything to do with social sciences will have heard about this man, he's one of the most known scholars in Europe today. His theories on the public sphere, democracy and communicative action are fascinating. He also has a great deal to say about the European Union.

Habermas on post-democratic Europe ->
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/nov/10/jurgen-habermas-europe-post-democratic

A comment on Habermas ->  http://www.thenation.com/article/168819/good-european-juergen-habermas

The second person, whose work I have been reading with great interest, is a Czech academic (hence the lovely photo from Prague) called Jiří Přibáň. His work includes topics such as the EU, the constitutional state, rule of law and post-communist Europe. 

An interview with Jiří Přibáň on the state of Europe -> http://www.radio.cz/en/section/books/jiri-priban-europe-needs-more-conflict

Dissertation: the Topic

Natalie wanted me to write a little bit more about my dissertation, so I have decided to dedicate a few posts to it.

I will start by introducing my topic.

Law and Society in Post-Communist Central Eastern Europe: Poland, Slovakia and Russia .

As you know, I’m studying sociology of law at the University of Lund in Sweden. Sociology of law deals with the relationship between law and other institutions and actors in society. I’m personally mostly interested in the interaction between people, law and politics.

When reading an article* written by one of my professors, I stumbled upon the following paragraph;

”The transition from a communist to a capitalist oriented industrial society in Eastern Europe and in the former Soviet Republic represents the same kind of tensions between the old rules of the game and a new play with a new script. These countries might face a situation where the society, the horizontal dimension, has shifted while the legal logic in the vertical dimension has not undergone the same changes.” (p. 20).

And the little nerd in my head rejoiced. Eastern Europe – yay. Former Soviet Republic – yay. This was a way for me to combine the study of the societies I like the most with a nice mix of sociology, some law and some politics. Why keep it simple?

This is a complex topic because on the one hand I need to find out what the people think and on the one hand, I need to know what the law says. And none of these two is simple. But it is very, very fascinating.  Basically – what I want to find out is whether the law fulfills the expectations that society places upon it. The reason I picked these specific countries is that they all share a piece of common history even though they are very different.

Stay tuned for more

 

* Contributions in Sociology of Law: remarks from a Swedish Horizon. Lund Studies in Sociology of Law; 29. Lund: Sociology of Law, Lund University. 2008 – available here https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/publication/1177637

…

In academia we often mention law and politics in the same breath, yet at the same time we are accustomed to consider law, the rule of law, and democracy as subjects of different disciplines: jurisprudence deals with law, political science with democracy, and each deals with the constitutional state in its own way – jurisprudence in normative terms political science from an empirical standpoint.

- Jürgen Habermas, “On the Internal Relation between the Rule of Law and Democracy”

Sociology of Law

http://cybernormer.se/2012/01/15/cybernorms-featuring-roger-cotterrell/

The above link leads to a very interesting interview on sociology of law and European Union law. As part of my current uni course, I need to write a blog. I’m thinking about addressing some of the main topics here as well – is that a yes yes or no no?

What Is Sociology of Law?

This is a question I often encounter (and usually the most confused looks come from people who at some point have studied law), so why not enlighten the world a little bit on a sleepless Sunday night.

Law tends to think that it is independent and autonomous and whatnot. We disagree with Law and claim that there is a whole web of social relations related to law and that these need to be studied. A very minimalist understanding of the sociology of law is “ to sociologically conceive of law as a particular category of rules and the social practices associated therewith”1.

Sociology of law sometimes studies the relation between society and law, sometimes it shifts its focus and pokes its nose into other people’s business – the relationship between law and politics (and then ultimately, society. For goodness sake, don’t forget about society) is a great deal of fun. Sociology of law can boast and say it’s truly interdisciplinary – sometimes it flirts with economics, sometimes with (social) psychology, at other times it has a crush on social anthropology or criminology. The list is endless and life never gets boring. Mainstream sociology is always there for some entertainment in case everything else would fail.

So, what exactly does the sociology of law study?

• social development of legal institutions
• forms of social control
• legal regulation
• the interaction between legal cultures
• the social construction of legal issues
• the  legal profession
• the relation between law and social change

The Master’s I’m doing focuses on European law, so it looks slightly different. We occupy our pretty little heads with the following2:

• democratic and cultural preconditions and development directions of the European Union and European integration processes
• commonalities and differences in socio-legal cultures and traditions in Europe 
• impact of European legislation on Europe and its surroundings and how this relates to legal, cultural, religious and social differences within and among European states.

If this didn’t make you want to go to sleep, I don’t know what will. At least I tried. Goodnight world!

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1) Mathieu Deflem: Sociology of Law: Visions of a Scholarly Tradition. Cambridge University Press, 2008. P. 5.
2) http://www.soclaw.lu.se/education/master-s-programme-in-sociology-of-law-european-law-se/about-the-programme