The Rationalities of Law between Formalism, Empiricism and Rematerialisation

Abstract

[MWS 21.2 (2021) 245-258] ISSN 1470-8078 doi: 10.15543/maxweberstudies.21.2.245© Max Weber Studies 2021, Global Policy Institute, University House, Coventry University London, 109 Middlesex Street, London E1 7JF. The Rationalities of Law between Formalism, Empiricism and Rematerialisation Michel Coutu Review of Hubert Treiber, Reading Max Weber’s Sociology of Law, trans. by Matthew Philpotts. (Oxford University Press, 2020), 195 pp. (hbk) ISBN 9780198837329. £80. Recently, at least three books (to our knowledge) have appeared in English on Max Weber’s Sociology of Law,1 following the publication in 2011 of the definitive version of the work, combining two parts of the monumental treatise Economy and Society, as volume I/22-3 of the Max Weber Gesamtausgabe.2 The most recent work, published in 2020, is by Hubert Treiber, Professor Emeritus at the Faculty of Law of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University in Hanover. Informed by an encyclopaedic knowledge not only of Max Weber’s work but also of a large body of relevant legal, social and historical literature (especially in German), Hubert Treiber’s book offers clear and simple keys to understanding the Sociology of Law, structuring the presentation around the stages of development of law identified, as an ideal-typical stylisation, by the sociologist. Introductory Section In Reading Max Weber’s Sociology of Law, the author devotes an introductory section (pp. 1-38, including chapters 1 and 2) to the following issues: the dating of the Sociology of Law, some necessary terminological clarifications, and Weber’s aims. Volume I/22-3 of the MWG brings together the two texts of Economy and Society that deal in 1. In addition to Treiber, see Werner Gephart, Law, Culture and Society: Max Weber’s Comparative Cultural Sociology of Law (Frankfurt, Vittorio Klostermann, 2015); Michel Coutu, Max Weber’s Interpretive Sociology of Law (London, Routledge, 2018). 2. Max Weber, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft: Recht, Max Weber-Gesamtausgabe, Bd I/22-3 (Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 2010). 246 Max Weber Studies© Max Weber Studies 2021. depth with the relationship between law and other spheres of activity: the section entitled ‘Die Wirtschaft und die Ordnungen’, which is largely devoted to the refutation of Rudolf Stammler’s theses3 on the relationship between economy and law, and the long chapter of Economy and Society (generally referred to as ‘Sociology of Law’) analysing the rationalisation of law.4 The precise dating of the various texts that make up the posthumous work Economy and Society is a challenge in itself and has given rise to much controversy. Based on the work of Wolfgang Schluchter,5 Werner Gephart and Siegfried Hermes, and on his own exceptional knowledge of Weber’s work, Treiber links the two major texts on law, given the terminology used, to the publication of the 1913 Logos article ‘On Some Categories of Comprehensive Sociology’.6 The completion of the text on the sociology of law (the second text) would therefore date from early to mid-1913. Concerning the terminology used by Weber, Treiber underlines the distinction between sociological and legal conceptions of law, implying respectively an empirical or normative search for ‘validity’. The author insists on the particular meaning of the notion of ‘order’ in Weber, i.e, a complex of representations and maxims of conduct orienting the behaviour of actors, whose stability is all the more assured when there is a strong belief in legitimacy. As for the sociological definition of law, which is distinguished from pure convention (the effectiveness 3. Max Weber, ‘Rudolf Stammler “Overcoming’ of the Materialist Conception of History’ and ‘Addendum to the Essay on Rudolf Stammler “Overcoming” of the Materialist Conception of History’, in Hans Henrik Bruun and Sam Whimster (eds.), Max Weber: Collected Methodological Writings (London, Routledge, 2012), pp. 185-240. Translation by H.H. Bruun of Max Weber, ‘R. Stammlers “Überwindung” der materialistischen Geschichtsauffassung’ and ‘Nachtrag zu dem Aufsatz über R. Stammlers “Überwindung” der materialistischen Geschichtsauffassung’, Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Wissenschaftslehre (Tübingen, J.C.B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1988), pp. 291-383. For an overview of the social philosophy of R. Stammler, see Michel Coutu, ‘Stammler, Rudolf’, in: M. Sellers, S. Kirste (eds.) Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (Springer, Dordrecht...