The beauty of sociology of law is that there is no specific, concise and precise definition of the subject. Various jurists define the subject in various ways. According to Horvath, Sociology of Law deals with the relations between the facts of life and judicial rules of evolution.
On the other hand the definition of Ehrlinch is to some extent different from the above proposition. According to Ehrlinch, at the present as well as at any other time, the centre of legal development lies not in legislation, nor in juristic science, but in society itself.
Generally sociology of law deals with the study of the human beings, the study of the social phenomena with the changing nature of the society. Rather to say sociology of law is about reconciliation between social expediency and legal expediency.
Weber’s Sociology of Law has for its main theme the analysis of transformation of law from a “charismatic” to a state of rationalization. The transformation is followed up in various legal phenomena: in the gradual distinction of public from private law, which is however, a distinction shifting with the development and principle of government, in the evolution from the decision of individual cases to general principles and eventually a systematization of law; in the development from the early status contract to the elastic and formless purpose-contract; from the autonomous legal personality of the Middle Ages to the modern state monopoly of the creation of legal personality.
Sociology of law gives a legal aspect whatever the circumstances is present at the present society. It suggest about the economic reform, legal reform and new legislation for the changing needs of the society. It always says about the impact of social change and legal order.
More broadly it can be said that sociology of law is about the biological study, social study, economic study, anthropological study, legal study and reconstruction of the law on the post modernization.
In a work of Donand Black, it has been said that sociology of law trying to reconcile the gap between the reality and the ideal.
Sociology of law is the study of relationship which the legal system of a society has with its other subsystems. The bounds of relationship between sociology and law are indeed deep and organic. Sociology deals with the study of social relationship, value, norms and attitudes. All of these form the foundation of law. The mutual dependence of law and sociology has therefore to be give due recognition. As the established pattern of social change, the laws must also change; otherwise a lag will be created which would generate tension in entire social system.
Today the world becomes a global village. Some laws have been formulated on the basic of global perspective. The internationalization of the national economy comes into the picture. A lot of scientific invention is going on and the nation of free and fair trade has tied up the global economy.
Every country has its own social values and the globalization policy creates a new tension all over the world. The tradition values are facing problem. By the virtue of the globalization new socio, economic, political problems are knocking of the doors of national and international level.
The sociology of law tries to solve various conflicting problems in the arena of postmodernism.
In today’s era, politically the issues between nationalism and transnationalism are really one of the clashing political ideals.
In the era of globalization, a lot of problem comes to the picture. There is wide gap between the rich and the poor. The British follows the capitalistic economy approach, on the other hand India follows the labour intensive economy. Globalization has not removed personal and regional income disparities. The gap between rich and poor is widening. We need a new global vision that ensures the gains from globalization are more widely shared.
