SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This chapter outlines some social scientific approaches to law so as to see what they can tell us about social norms, as well as show how such enquiries have figured in the development of sociology of law itself. It uses the work of Eugen Ehrlich as the starting point for understanding much of the later discussion of the role of norms in creating expectations within groups. The chapter offers some illustrations of the kinds of work that characterizes each of these approaches. A third area of relevant discussion is found in current interdisciplinary work dealing with what is described as global governance by indicators. Whilst arguing that much current writing on global normalisation can be traced back to Ehrlich's pioneering work on norms we have also pointed to important new issues that arise in studying global governance. The work discussed in this chapter raises a number of other questions worth further theoretical and empirical investigation.