Sociology of law: Introduction and main theoretical approaches

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to reflect on Sociology of Law as a discipline, based on its conceptualizations, fields of study and main theoretical approaches. From a critical focus, it approaches the study of Law as a social phenomenon, and its understanding from the social approaches in which it operates and from the meanings that subjects construct from its norms. Likewise, it reviews the main and diverse theoretical explanations of Law by the classic authors of Sociological Theory. Far from concluding that this theoretical diversity is contradictory or confusing in the analysis of Law and the legal system, we must admit that – on the contrary – the sociological perspective is multi-paradigmatic and going through it poses an interesting challenge.