Sociology of Law

Course content

Towards an understanding of the social bases and meanings of law: passage from everyday social practices to more or less formulated rules of conduct, ethos (customs, traditions), ethics and religion as ordering social practices to nomos and hence the law. Co-existence of the self and the other in an ordered world. Self-preservation of the self via security, delegation of power, obedience and establishment of the authority as well as social control. Connection between the law and the central body politic as the ultimate ordering of the social. The process of criminalisation and punishment. The historical-social meanings of justice and their relation to ethics and statute law. Special focus on the Turkic, ottoman, and contemporary Turkish Republican contexts.