LS300 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Donald Marshall, Jr., Legal Tests, Feminist Theory
Document Summary
Concerned with the relaionship between law and society: law having a life of it"s own, the law, however, it is interpreted and created by humans, both of these can stand on their own (law/sociology) Law is social: law is shaped by social relaions, and social relaions are shaped by law, law is inluenced by social norms and relaions from how we understand ourselves, relaions, how we understand one another. Calls into quesion claims of neutrality and objecivity in law. Set up as an adversarial system in which the focus to be on legal tests and rules, rather than the values of decision makers. Judges are supposed to apply neutral legal tests, apply precedent supposed to be about rules/legal method rather than about the values/opinions of judges. Police supposed to, in theory, apply the law evenly based on fact and evidence.
