Abstract
Both State and law are commonly considered to be “social phenomena”. We have grown so accustomed to this designation that we accept it mechanically and fail to analyze its content. The statment seems to be self-evident, simple, and at the same time casts a great deal of light on the problems of State and law. But in reality the simplicity of the above qualification is deceptive; it merely creates an illusion of clarifying a problem. By suggesting that it has dealt with the entire problem which needs no further consideration it functions as a formula conducive to mental indolence. The cause of difficulty is the fact that the phrase scial phenomenon” is often taken to have a weighty concrete content and a closely defined and rather limited range. This is what frequently happens on the basis of general knowledge supplemented by certain elementary concepts taken from political economy, such as “socio-economic relations, “and from sociology such as “social groups”, for there is a tendency to equate the range of the idea under discussion with those phenomena which are both known and “important”, though their number is rather limited. A close look at political economy and sociology would prove that both deal with a great number of varied social phenomena. At the same time there are a number of other disciplins which likewise study social phenomena; some, to be sure, study the same ones from different points of view, others concentrate on different phenomena altogether. If we glance at the whole vast area of social sciences and the humanities, and realize that all of them deal with particular social phenomena, we shall also realize that by defining State and law as “social phenomena” we may have, from the cognitive point of view, made a step backward rather than forward.
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Notes
Cf. S. Ossowski: O osobliwosci nauk spolecznych (On the Pecularity of Social Sciences), Warszawa 1962; chap. I.
Cf. L. Petra2ycki: Teoria prawa i patistwa w zwiqzku z teoriq moralnoici (Theory of State and Law in Relation to the Theory of Morality), Warszawa I 959, vol. II, chap. 1, par. 5, chap. 2, par. 12.
J. Szczepanski: Socjologia. Rozwój problematyki i metod (Sociology. Development of Problems and Methods) Warszawa 1961, passim and chap. 15; idem Elementarne pojgcia socjologii (Elementary Concepts of Sociology), Warszawa 1965, chap. 6; J. J. Wiatr: Spoleczenstwo. Wslej do socjologii systematycznej (Society. Introduction to Systematic Sociology), Warszawa 1964 cf. bibliography there. S. Ossowski, op. cit.
Cf., e. g. M. B. Clinard: “Criminological Research” in Sociology Today. Problems and Prospects, 3rd ed., New York 1960, pp. 526 ff.
Cf. Ossowski, pp. 43 ff. op. cit.
On the concept of social organization e. g. A. Matejko: Socjologia zakladu pracy (Sociology of Establishments), Warszawa 1961; A. Sarapata and K. Doktor: Elementy socjologii przemyslu (Elements of Industrial Sociology), Warszawa 1962.
Cf. footnotes 3 and e. g. P. A. Sorokin: The Organized Group (Institution) and Law-Norms Interpretations of Modern Legal Philosophies. Studies in Honor of Roscoe Pound, New York 1947, pp. 668–695.
This is related to the so called organization theory, cf., e. g. M. Haire: Modern Organization Theory, New York 1959; in relation to control theory cf. W. Lang: Struktura kontroli prawnej organówparislwowychPRL. Studium analityczne z zakresu ogólnej teorii kontroli prawnej (Structure of Legal Control of Stale Organs in Polish People’s Republic. An Analytical Study in the General Theory of Legal Control), Krakow 1963.
Cf. J. Lande: Studia z filozofii prawa (Studies in Philosophy of Law), Warszawa 1959, pp. 921926.
Cf. H. L. A. Hart: The Concept of Law, Oxford 1961, pp. 89 if..
Cf. J. Wroblewski: Krytyka nornratywistycznej teorii prawa i paristwa Hansa Kelsena (A Critique of Hans Kelsens Normativist Theory of State and Law), Warszawa 1955, chap. 3, pp. 33–64.
Cf. e. g. G. H. von Wright: Norm and Action. A Logical Enquiry, London 1963, chap.1.
Cf. e. g. a broader discussion of this problem in connection with H. Spencer’s doctrine L. Kasprzyk: Idee spoleczno polityczne Herberta Spencera (The Socio-Political Ideas of Herbrrt Spencer), Krakow 1961, chap. 6 and 7. In relation to the organic theories of the legal person cf. the classicial example O. Gierke: Deutsches Privatrecht, vol. I, Leipzig 1895, pp. 460 ff., pp. 479 ff.; Lande: loc. cit., pp. 957 ff
Cf S. Bratur: Osoby prawne w radzieckim prawie cywilnym (Lega! Persons in the Soviet Civil Law) Warszawa 1950, Pt 1; A. Venedictiva, Paristwowa wlasnosé socjalistyczna (Socialist Property of the State), Warszawa 1952, especially chap. 12. In connection with this Lande, loc. cit., pp. 960 ff.
Lande, loc. cit., pp. 972 ff
Cf. K. Grzybowski: Nauka o paristwie (Theory of State), Krakow 1949, chap. l and 2. In connection with the concept of the welfare State, cf S. Zawadzki: “Paristwo dobrobytu ”. Doktryna i praktyka (Welfare State. The Doctrine and Reality), Warszawa 1964, especially chap. 7.
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Woleński, J. (1999). State and Law: An Attempt at Integration of the Juristic with the Sociological Approach. In: Woleński, J. (eds) Kazimierz Opałek Selected Papers in Legal Philosophy. Law and Philosophy Library, vol 39. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9257-4_5
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