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Living Law: Reconsidering Eugen Ehrlich
Author(s): Marc Hertogh (Editor), Rosemary Hunter (Series Editor), David Nelken (Series Editor)
- Publisher: Hart Publishing
- Publication Date: January 15, 2009
- Edition: Illustrated
- Language: English
- Print length: 292 pages
- ISBN-10: 1841138975
- ISBN-13: 9781841138978
Book Description
This collection of essays is the first edited volume in the English language which is entirely dedicated to the work of Eugen Ehrlich. Eugen Ehrlich (1862-1922) was an eminent Austrian legal theorist and professor of Roman law. He is considered by many as one of the ‘founding fathers’ of modern sociology of law. Although the importance of his work (including his concept of ‘living law’) is widely recognised, Ehrlich has not yet received the serious international attention he deserves. Therefore, this collection of essays is aimed at ‘reconsidering’ Eugen Ehrlich by bringing together an interdisciplinary group of leading international experts to discuss both the historical and theoretical context of his work and its relevance for contemporary law and society scholarship.
This book has been divided into four parts. Part I of this volume paints a lively picture of the Bukowina, in southeastern Europe, where Ehrlich was born in 1862. Moreover it considers the political and academic atmosphere at the end of the nineteenth century. Part II discusses the main concepts and ideas of Ehrlich’s sociology of law and considers the reception of Ehrlich’s work in the German speaking world, in the United States and in Japan. Part III of this volume is concerned with the work of Ehrlich in relation to that of some his contemporaries, including Roscoe Pound, Hans Kelsen and Cornelis van Vollenhoven. Part IV focuses on the relevance of Ehrlich’s work for current socio-legal studies.
This volume provides both an introduction to the important and innovative scholarship of Eugen Ehrlich as well as a starting point for further reading and discussion.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Living Law: Reconsidering Eugen Ehrlich offers the considered opinions of several scholars on the significance of Ehrlich’s work from
his first publications more than a century ago until today.
In reading this volume, one is struck by Ehrlich’s prescience. His notion of ”living law” is a precursor to a wide range of concepts that still shape law and society discourse. It has served as a constructive contrast to Pound’s ”law in action” for many decades now, but it also foreshadowed studies of legal pluralism and legal consciousness.
[A]nyone inclined to re/read Ehrlich’s magnum opus would do well to study Hertogh’s collection as a companion volume.” ―Dan Steward, Law & Society Review, Vol. 45, No. 1
“This volume is a scholarly and highly commendable contribution to the study of Ehrlich’s thought and is likely to stimulate further work on non-state law and legal consciousness; certainly, any scholar with an interest in sociological jurisprudence shall find it to be an invaluable resource about an extremely interesting and influential figure.” ―Tim Murphy, Dublin University Law Journal, Vol. 31, No. 1
“The publication of the collective work Living Law: Reconsidering Eugen Ehrlich (Living Law) … is, indeed, most welcome. The book, without a doubt, will be of great interest to all readers involved in legal sociology, legal anthropology, and, more broadly, in “law and society” scholarship. The contributors to this collection of essays are all highly learned and talented scholars
Any reader interested in legal sociology and legal pluralism should find Hertogh’s collective work … full of relevant information about Elrich, and also highly stimulating.” ―Michel Coutu, Osgoode Hall Law Review, Vol. 47. Nr.3
“All of the essays are well-written and present cogent arguments” ―John H. Bogart, Law and Politics Book Review
About the Author
Rosemary Hunter FacSS is Professor of Socio-Legal Studies and Founding Head of Law at the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at Loughborough University, UK. She is a feminist socio-legal scholar with particular interests in family law and family justice processes, judging and the judiciary, and access to justice. She has published widely on these topics in both Australia (where she began her academic career) and the UK. With Anne Barlow, she was a member of the ESRC-funded Mapping Paths to Family Justice project, which resulted in their prize-winning book, Mapping Paths to Family Justice: Resolving Family Disputes in Neoliberal Times (Barlow, Hunter, Smithson and Ewing, 2017). Rosemary has been the Academic Member of the Family Justice Council since 2016 and leads the Council’s Domestic Abuse Working Group. She is also a member of the Private Law Working Group and the Ministry of Justice’s Expert Panel on Harm in the Family Courts. She is a former Chair of the SLSA and a former Council member of JUSTICE.
David Nelken is Professor of Comparative and Transnational Law and past Vice-Dean for Research at King’s College London, UK. Widely published in sociology of law and in criminology, he has received awards from the American Sociological Association, the American Society of Criminology, the International Sociological Association, and the (USA) Law and Society Association. He has twice been a Trustee of the LSA and Vice-President of the RSCL.
