Law

== Intersection with other fields ==
=== Economics ===
{{main|Law and economics}}

[[File:Richard Posner at Harvard University.jpg|thumb|[[Richard Posner]], [[University of Chicago Law School]] professor and the most cited legal scholar, until 2014 ran a blog with [[Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences|Nobel Prize]] winning economist [[Gary Becker]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Becker-Posner Blog |url=http://uchicagolaw.typepad.com/beckerposner/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100519191011/http://uchicagolaw.typepad.com/beckerposner/ |archive-date=19 May 2010 |access-date=20 May 2010}}</ref>]]

In the 18th century, [[Adam Smith]] presented a philosophical foundation for explaining the relationship between law and economics.{{efn|According to Malloy , Smith established "a classical liberal philosophy that made individuals the key referential sign while acknowledging that we live not alone but in community with others".(''Law and Economics'', 114)}} The discipline arose partly out of a critique of trade unions and U.S. [[antitrust]] law. The most influential proponents, such as [[Richard Posner]] and [[Oliver E. Williamson|Oliver Williamson]] and the so-called [[Chicago school (economics)|Chicago School]] of economists and lawyers including [[Milton Friedman]] and [[Gary Becker]], are generally advocates of [[deregulation]] and [[privatisation]], and are hostile to state regulation or what they see as restrictions on the operation of [[free market]]s.{{sfn|Jakoby|2005|p=53}}

The most prominent economic analyst of law is 1991 [[Nobel Prize in Economics|Nobel Prize]] winner [[Ronald Coase]], whose first major article, ''[[The Nature of the Firm]]'' (1937), argued that the reason for the existence of firms (companies, partnerships, etc.) is the existence of [[transaction cost]]s.{{sfn|Coase|1937|pp=386–405}} [[Homo economicus|Rational individuals]] trade through bilateral contracts on open markets until the costs of transactions mean that using corporations to produce things is more cost-effective. His second major article, ''[[The Problem of Social Cost]]'' (1960), argued that if we lived in a world without transaction costs, people would [[bargaining|bargain]] with one another to create the same allocation of resources, regardless of the way a court might rule in property disputes.{{sfn|Coase|1960|pp=1–44}} Coase used the example of a [[nuisance]] case named ''[[Sturges v Bridgman]]'', where a noisy sweetmaker and a quiet doctor were neighbours and went to court to see who should have to move.<ref name="Sturges" /> Coase said that regardless of whether the judge ruled that the sweetmaker had to stop using his machinery, or that the doctor had to put up with it, they could strike a mutually beneficial bargain about who moves that reaches the same outcome of resource distribution. Only the existence of [[transaction costs]] may prevent this.<ref>Coase, ''The Problem of Social Cost'', IV, 7</ref> So the law ought to pre-empt what ''would'' happen, and be guided by the most [[efficiency (economics)|efficient]] solution. The idea is that law and regulation are not as important or effective at helping people as lawyers and government planners believe.<ref>Coase, ''The Problem of Social Cost'', V, 9</ref> Coase and others like him wanted a change of approach, to put the burden of proof for positive effects on a government that was intervening in the market, by analysing the costs of action.<ref>Coase, ''The Problem of Social Cost'', VIII, 23</ref>

=== Sociology ===
{{main|Sociology of law}}

The sociology of law examines the interaction of law with society and overlaps with jurisprudence, philosophy of law, social theory and more specialised subjects such as [[criminology]].{{sfn|Cotterrell|1992}}{{sfn|Jary|Jary|1995|p=636}} It is a transdisciplinary and multidisciplinary study focused on the theorisation and empirical study of legal practices and experiences as social phenomena. The institutions of [[Social constructionism|social construction]], [[social norms]], dispute processing and [[legal culture]] are key areas for inquiry in this knowledge field. In the United States, the field is usually called law and society studies; in Europe, it is more often referred to as socio-legal studies. At first, jurists and legal philosophers were suspicious of sociology of law. Kelsen attacked one of its founders, [[Eugen Ehrlich]], who sought to make clear the differences and connections between positive law, which lawyers learn and apply, and other forms of 'law' or social norms that regulate everyday life, generally preventing conflicts from reaching lawyers and courts.<ref>Ehrlich, ''Fundamental Principles'', Hertogh, ''Living Law'', Rottleuthner, ''La Sociologie du Droit en Allemagne'', 109, Rottleuthner, ''Rechtstheoritische Probleme der Sociologie des Rechts'', 521</ref> Contemporary research in the sociology of law is concerned with the way that law develops outside discrete state jurisdictions, being produced through social interaction in social arenas, and acquiring a diversity of sources of authority in national and transnational communal networks.{{sfn|Cotterrell|2006}}

[[File:Max Weber 1917.jpg|thumb|[[Max Weber]] in 1917. Weber began his career as a lawyer, and is regarded as one of the founders of sociology and sociology of law.]]

Around 1900, [[Max Weber]] defined his "scientific" approach to law, identifying the "legal rational form" as a type of domination, not attributable to personal authority but to the authority of abstract norms.{{sfn|Rheinstein|1954|p=336}} Formal legal rationality was his term for the key characteristic of the kind of coherent and calculable law that was a precondition for modern political developments and the modern bureaucratic state. Weber saw this law as having developed in parallel with the growth of capitalism.{{sfn|Cotterrell|1992}}{{sfn|Jary|Jary|1995|p=636}} Another leading sociologist, [[Émile Durkheim]], wrote in his classic work ''The Division of Labour in Society'' that as society becomes more complex, the body of civil law concerned primarily with restitution and compensation grows at the expense of criminal laws and penal sanctions.{{sfn|Cotterrell|1999}}{{sfn|Johnson|1995|p=156}} Other notable early legal sociologists included [[Hugo Sinzheimer]], [[Theodor Geiger]], [[Georges Gurvitch]] and [[Leon Petrażycki]] in Europe, and [[William Graham Sumner]] in the U.S.{{sfn|Gurvitch|Hunt|2001|p=142}}{{sfn|Papachristou|1999|pp=81–82}}