Practice Theory and Law

Book excerpt: This book engages the field of practice theory in order to consider law as a social practice. Taking up the theoretical concept of practices, the contributors to this volume maintain that law can be fruitfully understood as one among other social practices. Including perspectives from philosophers of language, experts in practice theory, linguists and legal philosophers, the book examines the twin questions of what it means for law to be considered a practice, and what law’s place is among other social practices. The book is comprised of three parts. The first provides a broad methodological framework for discussing how the concept of practice is used in the social sciences, and in law. The second deals with specific problems arising from the use of the concept of practice in the legal context, and from the intersection of different social practices. The third part identifies and addresses the consequences of applying insights from practice theory to law. Together, they offer a comprehensive consideration of what is at stake in understanding law as a social practice. This book will appeal to sociolegal scholars, sociologists of law, philosophers of language and action, as well as philosophers of law and legal theorists. Chapter 15 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license. Chapter 8 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC-BY-SA) 4.0 license.