Introduction: Emerging Legal Uncertainty

Abstract

This introductory chapter begins by outlining the themes which run through the pages of this book before it explains how they are related to each other and why they lead us towards a deeper understanding of socio-legal theory and research. The overarching question guiding this inquiry is how legal sociology can produce an empirically valid and theoretically sound insight into the development of forms of law and legality in our contemporary global society. To answer this question we need to conceptualise law and legality, on the one hand, and elaborate on the properties of our contemporary society, on the other. The former involves engaging with debates on law and comparing various understandings of legality—among other things asking if the law is a rational system of norms, a field of practice or a form of experience. The latter entails comparing social conditions of a contemporary global society with earlier forms of social organisation.