Sociology of law and the problem of normative closing the discourse

Abstract

Sociology of law, as well as other special sociological disciplines dealing with
social institutions, is burdened by the epistemological - methodological diffi -
culties in their studies (sociological studies of law). Th e diffi culties are caused
by the diff erentiation of the institutions in the terms of building self- identity
and autonomy and they appear in the form of institutional resistance and
discursive exclusion. All the problems can be identifi ed as the eff ect of the operational
closure of the institutions and production of the self-description. In
the case of law we discuss the normative closure of the discourse as an expression
of the institutional resistance and discursive expropriation. Th e focus of
the work are the epistemological and methodological diffi culties as a problem
for the Sociology of Law, and the problem of the normative closing of the
legal discourse as the cause. Th e manifestation of the epistemological - methodological
diffi culties can be seen in several instances : a) the institutional
reactivity of rights as a “social problem” , b) the construction of the identity
rights through the establishment of diff erences, c) determining the sociology
of law as an external perspective on law and d) the normative closing of the
legal discourse through the eff ects of conceptual and discursive expropriation.
When asked how the sociology of law can deal with these diffi culties in principle
corresponds in the end of this work.