Family Law and Social Change Among the Toro of Uganda

Abstract

Jane Collier has stated that “the long preoccupation in legal studies with explaining the gap between law and behaviour has precluded the search for a more complex model of relations between law and society that accepts the gap as given”. The purpose of this paper is to further document the need for a more complex model of the relations between law and society. One question now gaining currency is: what is the relationship of law to social change? Some observers claim that “the question is no longer whether law is a significant vehicle of social change but ratherhowit so functions and what special problems arise”. Others regard law as a potential cause of social problems. A serious debate has thus emerged over whether law works at all to effect change and, if so, for whose benefit. This is a complex question. Legal impact studies for example, have revealed some unintended consequences of law-in-action. Moreover, it is often difficult to isolate the main effect of a legal policy, and in any case, social scientists and policymakers alike are interested in longer-range, indirect effects. It is useful, therefore, to distinguish between the direct and indirect aspects of the role of law. Given this complexity, we may usefully rephrase the question as follows: what conditions or factors affect the relationship between law and society, including social change?