Citation

Timasheff NS. Am. J. Sociol. 1937; 43(2): 225-235.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1937, University of Chicago Press)

DOI

10.1086/217681

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The sociology of law, a new science, studies human behavior in society in so far as it is determined by commonly recognized ethico-legal norms, and in so far as it influences them. Jurisprudence, on the other hand, studies the norms as such, from three main points of view: analytical or positive, historical, and theoretical. Other attempts to delimit the field of sociology of law, such as those of H. Rolin, W. Schoenfeld, H. U. Kantorowicz, J. Kraft, I. Kornefeld, E. Ehrlich, H. Kelsen, Max Weber, B. Horvath, L. Petrajitsky, C. Lombroso, M. Rumpf, and others, are of some value, although not altogether satisfactory. The studies of psychologists, anthropologists, philosophers of law, and jurists permit the formulation of a sociological definition of law as a complex instrument of social co-ordination synthesizing ethical conviction and political power.