Sociological Methods in Law and the Efficacy of the Legal Norm

Abstract

Law is complex and multifaceted phenomen which means that it consists of different aspects such as legal norms, values and relations. Depending on the theoretical orientation and on the particualar aspect of law, scholars use different and appropriate methods such as normative, comparative or linguistic etc. Through its development sociology has built different methods such as surveys, observation, content analysis or and interviews. Legal efficacy, being part of the application of law, is in the literature ussually considered as a field that falls within the scope of the sociology of law. Scholars who previously wrote about the efficacy of law, with occasional references to empirical research and sociological approaches to law, did not particularly consider the possibility of integrating sociological methods into discussions on how to understand the efficacy of legal norms and legal orders. This essay does not want to provide definite answers but rather to point out the question whether there is a niche in which sociological methods could find their application or descriptive usefulness in an adequate and coherent way.