Law and society Flashcards
What is society?
Dictionary definition –> “a large group of people who live together in an organised way, making decisions about how to do things and sharing the work that needs to be done.”
What is a pluralist society?
One where there is tolerance of different views, beliefs and cultural traditions
What is the role of law in society?
Lord Bingham sets out principles
- To protect individual citizens from harm
- To ensure the idea of a common good by providing key services such as health care and education
- To arbitrate over disputes within society
- To influence people to act in a moral way (laws)
What is the two-way relationship demonstrated by law and society?
Law tries to balance competing interests within society by establishing punishable offences, to avoid friction.
Knee-jerk reactions can occur to campaigns in the media e.g. ‘Sarah’s law’ and the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991
How does the law work as a social control mechanism?
Formal social control is exercised by specific agencies whose role is to maintain order in society i.e. the criminal justice system.
What does Pound say about social control?
Pound says that the law shouldn’t try to weigh individual interests against society’s interests because there will not be a level playing field.
What is consensus theory?
Works on the premise that a society functions due to most people being successfully ‘socialised’ meaning they hold shared values.
John Locke’s social contract theory is about the consensus model
What is conflict theory?
The idea that there is a fundamental imbalance of power within society and a constant struggle due to competition for limited recourses –> social order is maintained by those with wealth and power dominating and suppressing the poor and powerless
What is labelling theory?
Society creates a set of rules, and anyone who breaks them is labelled as being ‘deviant’
Howard Becker explores the way that most people who are labelled ‘deviant because of their failure to conform to social rules and norms’
What are examples of balancing conflicting interests?
You can use the lay magistrate and juries in order to achieve the notion of ‘trial by one’s peers’
The rules under the Bail Act 1976 strike a balance between protecting the liberty of the suspect and the need to protect the victim and society as a whole
The rules on government-funded legal aid should be balanced but since the Sentencing and Punishment of offenders Act 2012 - This has not been achieved
Human rights law is about balancing conflicting interests
What is Legal realism?
This theory argues that law can only be understood by looking at the ways it works in reality
Oliver Wendell Holmes believes that certainty of the law is a myth and if law was merely a set of rules we would not have an adversarial legal system (representative legal system)
Legal realism argues the law is simply the law is as it is written in statutes and that judges simply apply the law in order to reach a justified outcome
