Weber

Question 1

Is he a legal positivist?

Answer 1

Yes.

• ‘Purest type of exercise of legal authority is that which employs a bureaucratic administrative staff’

Question 2

Where is Weber’s concept of law found?

Answer 2

• Rooted in the individual and social action

Question 3

According to him, what is law?

Answer 3

1. Externally guaranteed by probability of coercion
2. To bring about conformity or avenge violation
3. Applied by staff specially ready for that purpose (e.g. judges)

Question 4

What are the 3 themes of law?

Answer 4

1. Typology of law
2. Theory of legitimate domination
3. R/s between economy and law

Question 5

Why is typology of law important?

Answer 5

Rationalising the law = More predictable and stable environment to support + facilitate economic production

• Formal Rational best

Question 6

What are the 4 categories of legal rationality?

[Typology of law]

Answer 6

1. Formal
2. Substantive (Informal)
3. Rational
4. Irrational

Question 7

What are the 3 types of legal authorities?

[Theory of legitimate domination]

Answer 7

1. Traditional
2. Charismatic
3. Legal Rational

Question 8

How does Weber see legal domination?

Answer 8

Whether a legal order is valid does not rely on whether it reflects people’s beliefs

‘Not dependent upon the extent to which the law reflects the values to which people who accept its legitimacy subscribe’

Question 9

How does Weber see the dominant discourse of rationality?

Answer 9

Ambivalent

• ‘threatens to dehumanise our existence and confine us to an iron cage of rationality’

Question 10

Critique?

Answer 10

• What about a common law system?