The paper examines certain legal changes in eighteenth-century Connecticut, primarily in the area of debt litigation, and links them with economic development and with changes in the nature and meaning of community. The legal changes proceeded in the direction of greater rationality as expanding economic activity disrupted the multiplex ties that had once characterized communities and paired people instead in single-interest relationships. Max Weber's concept of rationality provides a theoretical base for the historical study of legal change.

Since its introduction, Black's (1976) theory of law has generated controversy (e.g., Eder, 1977; Stinchcombe, 1977), but few empirical evaluations. The most recent test (Gottfredson and Hindelang, 1979a) identified a number of empirical inadequacies and posited an alternative model to correct them. This paper assesses both Black's and Gottfredson-Hindelang's models of law, choosing as the arena of evaluation criminal law and its behavior. Analysis of data from a sample of criminal defendants identifies empirical inadequacies in both theories and raises questions about their validity, predictive power, and generality. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for the substance and underlying assumptions of both theories of law.

This collection, which brings together critical reviews of the literature on a variety of contemporary issues in law and social science, has its origins in two judgments about our field that may appear contradictory but in fact are complementary. On the one hand, the empirical data and generalizations produced during the last several decades seem to call for, and amply to deserve, compilation and summary of the kind often found in propositional inventories. But at the same time recent scholarship often seems stagnant, further documentation (or falsification) of a well-established (or generally discredited) hypothesis, one more entry in a sterile, and ultimately unresolvable, theoretical debate—a by-product of the demands of tenure-review committees rather than the expression of any real intellectual engagement. If this judgment is fair, reflective and critical reassessment of the field is essential to break the hold of existing preoccupations and to formulate new questions. These dual motives will be apparent throughout this volume. Here I will offer my view of the kind of reappraisal that is needed, explain how the topics and authors were selected, and suggest some of the ways in which the essays that follow contribute to the task.

American dynastic business families as descent groups constitute a category of social organization with which anthropologists have been traditionally familiar, but in the unlikely setting of a complex, bureaucratized society. This paper examines aspects of such groups and argues that law has been a critical organizational resource in their development. Law does not merely impinge at times on family concerns, but becomes an integral dimension of extended family relations in the arrangements for perpetuating collective wealth as business capital, and in distributing individual entitlements to that wealth among descendants. A general model of family/business formations is presented, supported by a comparative discussion of two dynastic families of Galveston, Texas.

The results of a survey of public attitudes about appropriate length of prison sentences for convicted offenders are reported. Two main questions are addressed: 1) degree of consensus within the population about appropriate sentences for different offenses and 2) the relationship between the desired sentences expressed by the public and the actual time served by offenders in prison. The analysis suggests considerable agreement across various demographic groups on the relative severity of sentences to be imposed for different offenses, but disagreement over the absolute magnitude of these sentences. These results suggest the feasibility of generating consensus on a proportional, just deserts sentencing schedule, but difficulty in establishing the “constant of proportionality.” The sentences desired by the public are found to be consistently more severe than sentences actually imposed, suggesting the need for greater public awareness of current imprisonment practices so that expectations of the determinate sentencing schedules will be realistic and consistent with limited prison capacity.

The impact of government regulations on the functioning of markets is currently a topic of lively debate. In this paper we examine the effects of legislative and administrative regulations on the market for services provided by Chicago currency exchanges. Our findings suggest that the regulations stifle competition, with the result that the opportunity to extract excessive profits exists. And since currency exchanges tend to be concentrated in poorer neighborhoods with higher proportions of minority residents, the burdens of market inefficiencies fall on those individuals who can least afford them.

This article reports on research evaluating the impact of five Pennsylvania Supreme Court decisions on five Pennsylvania state agencies. Rational choice theory is used to explain several different responses to the judicial decisions: (1) initiating a search for more information, (2) conducting an extensive search, and (3) complying with the court decision and degree of compliance. The analysis demonstrates that the decision to initiate a search depended upon the agency's interpretation of the judicial decision as adverse. The extent of the search was related to the enforcement possibilities. The degree of compliance differed according to whether the agency viewed the decision as adverse and what resources the agency had at its disposal. In general, all of the agencies failed to comply actively with the state court decisions.

This paper reports on an attempt by an interdisciplinary team to observe and record on tape lawyer-client interaction in the metropolitan Boston area in 1975-77. Current pressure for greater accountability to the public on the part of the legal profession makes the empirical, observational study of lawyer-client relations a timely, important topic. Despite the investment of much time and energy in creating conditions suitable for such a study, the project team failed to gain access to private lawyer-client encounters. The goal of the paper is to try to account for this failure, to analyze the nature of the obstacles encountered, and to stimulate speculation on how these obstacles might be overcome in the future. It is suggested that the doctrine of attorney-client privilege is the major obstacle which researchers must overcome. The idea of paying attorneys for their cooperation is also considered.

Disillusionment with the therapeutic ideal has led to the current movement to reduce the jurisdiction of juvenile courts to cases in which they can exercise a crime-prevention function and to emphasize a fair, adversarial court procedure including representation by a lawyer. Two North Carolina juvenile courts were studied in 1975-1976 to determine their degree of concern about rehabilitation, crime prevention, and adversarial procedure. These courts showed a trend toward reducing their intake of cases with a less serious prior record and current offense and becoming more punitive with regard to the remaining cases. The dominant factors associated with disposition—particularly with the decision to commit the child to training school—were prior court record and seriousness of current offense. Other factors found to be of some importance were the child's family structure, support by the family as shown by court attendance, and whether the complainant in the case was a parent or probation officer. Race, family income, and the sex of the child had little or no effect on decisions to commit. Differences in individual judges' commitment rates were explained largely by differences in the cases they handled. Being held in detention before the court hearing made commitment more likely. The type of counsel a child had—private, individually assigned, or specialized Juvenile Defender—made no difference in whether he was adjudicated delinquent or committed. In fact, children represented by counsel were somewhat more likely to be committed than those without counsel. This and other findings of the study suggest that the participation of lawyers in juvenile court may be largely a formality, a token compliance with due process requirements rather than an integral part of court fact-finding.

This review essay analyzes the relation between language and the two basic functions of law, the ordering of social relations and the restoration of social order when it breaks down. One main theme is the linguistic description of legal language and the sociolinguistic and sociolegal limitations on its reform. Drawing on a basic distinction between the nature of discourse in play, ritual, and the “serious” mode of everyday life, the essay goes on to contrast “play” genres of disputing with “fact”-oriented genres. An overview of the forms and functions of play genres of disputing is followed by a discussion of the management of three main aspects of “facf'-oriented disputes: the substance of arguments, linguistic form, and language and silence. Narrative and questioning modes of claim construction are contrasted. The notion of “thickening” in legal language is presented, and five possible explanations for this phenomenon are explored. The essay concludes with a discussion of topics for future debate and research.

Congress and the Supreme Court have had many intense conflicts over the years. This paper examines that relationship in an effort to determine whether the Court's role is essentially that of legitimator or disturber of the political universe. Drawing upon the analysis of Dahl as critiqued by Funston, Adamany, and Casper, the relationship is tested using a much broader data base than was used by the previous studies. Based upon this analysis, the Court is characterized as a legitimator but also as a significant wielder of power (contrary to Dahl's earlier assertions).

This paper develops a theoretical framework for investigating the socialpsychological dynamics of punishment reactions to criminal offenders. Two basic types of punishment motives are delineated: behavior control and retribution. The target, or focus, of these motives may be the offender or a broader social audience. Within each of the four cells defined by this classification, we review the literature describing how punishment responses are influenced by characteristics of the rule, the offense, and the offender, as well as by the attitude and personality of the reactor. A large number of empirically testable propositions are generated.

The following article analyzes the dispute between legal philosophers Ronald Dworkin and H.L.A. Hart over the nature of legal rights. The author argues that central to this dispute is a pervasive methodological problem of social theory, the “problem of theoretical perspective.” He makes use of a distinction between “internal” and “external” perspectives to defend what he conceives to be Hart's more fully social approach to the conceptualization of legal rights.