Making Law: The State, the Law, and Structural Contradictions

" . . . a distinct, broad, but compelling framework for examining a variety of laws and social policies." ―Legal Studies Forum

" . . . a very rich volume that has something to offer to many different tastes . . . an excellent companion to the main textbook in a large undergraduate law-and-society course." ―Contemporary Sociology

No issue has captured the imagination of social scientists and legal scholars more consistently than the creation of laws. The political implications of the study of law and society often create ideological diatribes with little attention to empirical detail. In this book, legal scholars, sociologists, political scientists, and anthropologists join in an attempt to develop and refine a structural theory of law.

WILLIAM J. CHAMBLISS is Professor of Sociology at George Washington University and author of On the Take: From Petty Crooks to Presidents; Law, Order and Power (with Robert Seidman); Organizing Crime (with Alan Block); Exploring Criminology; and more than a dozen other books in the sociology of law, sociological theory, and criminology. MARJORIE S. ZATZ is Associate Professor of Justice Studies at Arizona State University and author of Robes and Sandals: Producing Legality in Revolutionary Cuba.