CRIM 332 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Substantive Law, Semicolon, Abortion Clinic
11 Dec 2020
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Lec 2: making sense of law and society. What is the role of law: to set societal norms or, to reinforce societal norms. Sociological study of law: (traditional) lawyers: consider how the law regulates our conduct: sociologist: consider the law in action rather than as it appears in books. Roles: lawyers: advocate for a specific cause (p= public interest, d= client, sociologists: look at roles of public, factors like race, ethnicity, background of lawyers. Interest in a broader scale, "what does it mean for our society?" Conceptions of "truth": lawyer: legal truth, "guilty or not guilty, things are/are not, things happened/did not happen, sociologists, comfortable with setting out probabilities (p does not exist in law) External actions/threats involve coercion or force: punishments/penalties/fines (eg, prison) Individuals holding an official role to enforce the law: police officers. Public v private: public law: involve at least one government actor, eg, individual rights cases aka charter cases.
