This
book provides an interdisciplinary "mapping" of the nature of law in contemporary
society. and attends to a range of issues relevant to the understanding
of law and society. The book is emphatically not about the technical
dimensions of law and the specific, detailed content of bodies of law.
Rather, Law in Our Lives: An Introduction, should provide students
enrolled in any course introducing law as a social institution with a broad-based
exploration of this subject. Some of the themes addressed in this
book include: the celebration of law and the critique of law; the
meaning of law and legal resoning; law in relation to justice; morality,
and religion; explaining law and society (e.g., schools of jurisprudence,
and social theories); major legal traditions and systems of law; special
perspectives on law (e.g., comparative); a life in the law (i.e., the legal
profession); an overview of legal institutions and processes; legal culture
(e.g., beliefs about law) and legal behavior (e.g. obedience to law); and
law in fluz (e.g., how law has been reformed; emerging attributes of law
in the 21st century). This book should provide a foundation for further
study in more narrowly focused courses on law or the sociolegal.