Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Postscript
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Part I The Rise of the Realist Movement 1870–1931
- Part II The Life and Work of Karl Llewellyn: A Case Study
- 6 The Man
- 7 Two Early Works
- 8 The Cheyenne Way
- 9 Law in Our Society
- 10 The Common Law Tradition
- 11 The Genesis of the Uniform Commercial Code
- 12 The Jurisprudence of the Uniform Commercial Code
- 13 Miscellaneous Writings
- 14 The Significance of Llewellyn: An Assessment
- Part III Conclusion
- Appendices
9 - Law in Our Society
from Part II - The Life and Work of Karl Llewellyn: A Case Study
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Postscript
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Part I The Rise of the Realist Movement 1870–1931
- Part II The Life and Work of Karl Llewellyn: A Case Study
- 6 The Man
- 7 Two Early Works
- 8 The Cheyenne Way
- 9 Law in Our Society
- 10 The Common Law Tradition
- 11 The Genesis of the Uniform Commercial Code
- 12 The Jurisprudence of the Uniform Commercial Code
- 13 Miscellaneous Writings
- 14 The Significance of Llewellyn: An Assessment
- Part III Conclusion
- Appendices
Summary
Llewellyn's major published works have strong affinities with each other but they cannot be said to form a neat pattern. Each reveals aspects of his ideas and approach, but none brings them together into a single coherent statement of a general theory. At first sight Llewellyn's work appears to contrast sharply with that of system builders like Bentham and Lasswell. He felt constricted by collections of tightly drawn definitions; he tended to use vague terms when working at a high level of generality; orderly presentation of his ideas did not come naturally to him and on the whole he was more concerned with ‘theories of the middle range’ than with ‘ultimate questions’.
However, he was fully in sympathy with systematic thinkers in believing in the value of seeing things in a broad perspective. He was also anxious to fit his ideas into a single, reasonably coherent framework. As early as 1927 he wrote a paper on ‘Mechanisms of Group Control’, which represents his first serious attempt to state a general sociological theory of law. He was dissatisfied with it and withheld publication. Between 1927 and 1940 he made several further attempts, all of which were abandoned before completion. The preparation of The Cheyenne Way stimulated him to try again. This time he was more successful and within a relatively short period, in 1940–1, he published three papers, which taken together with The Cheyenne Way provide a fairly full and coherent picture of his general ideas at this stage.
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- Information
- Karl Llewellyn and the Realist Movement , pp. 170 - 202Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012