Law in a Changing Society

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Description
Law in a Changing Society is a classic work on contemporary thought. Professor Friedmann writes of the law's great themes—its complex interaction with social change, its intervention into economics and the environment, its balance of public power and private rights, its place in the growth of international order, its own changing role in the interdependent society—with insight, imagination and an exciting breadth of scholarship. For this second edition, the author has largely rewritten his text and added two new chapters: chapter 8, which examines the alternatives of economic competition, public regulation and public enterprise; and a concluding  chapter, which examines the changing role of law in the society of the seventies. He sums up in his Preface the developments to which he has responded: "In some areas, such as family law, the last decade has brought fundamental changes in many countries, with respect to divorce, abortion, the status of illegitimate children, matrimonial property, and other matters. The very function and ambit of criminal law and criminal sanction has been put in question by recent developments in social psychology and genetic engineering. The substitution of insurance for tort liability, particularly in the field of motorcar accidents, has become a problem of increasing urgency. The growth of mechanisation, and the centralisation of power, both at the Government and the corporate level, has made a re-examination of the relation between public power and the individual a matter of urgent necessity. The role of international law and organisation in international society has more and more become a question on which the ordered survival of mankind will depend. And any student of the relation of law and society must reflect on the changing function of law in the increasingly interdependent
society of the 1970s, as one of a number of interacting components in a complex web of systems analysis, social planning and decision-making." The book is divided into six Parts : Instruments of Legal Change; Social Change and Legal Institutions; Economic Power, the State and the Law; The Growing Role of Public Law; The Changing Scope of International Law; The Function of Law in Contemporary Society.
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Contents
Part one - Instruments of Legal Change
1. The Interactions of Legal and Social Change
    Savigny and Bentham
    Ehrlich
    The Interplay of State Action and Public Opinion
    Constitutional Patterns and Legal Change
    State Powers and the Control of Personal Liberties and Economic Rights
    The Various Patterns of Democracy and Legal Change
    Revolution, Civil Disobedience and Legal Change
    Conclusions
2. The Courts and the Evolution of the Law
    Precedent and Social Change in the Common Law
    Statutory Interpretation and the Conflict of Values
    Social Change and the Interpretation of Constitutions
    Judicial Law-Making and the Criminal Law
    Judicial Law-Making in International Law
Part Two - Social Change and Legal Institutions
3. Changing Concepts of Property
    The Key Position of Property in Modern Industrial Society
    Different Concepts of Property
    Property Law and the Evolution of Industrial Society
    Public Restraints on the Rights of Property
    Curbing the Power of Property
    Decline and Rebirth of the Right of Property
4. The Changing Function of Contract
    The Corner-Stones of Contract in the 'Classical' Era
    The Main Social Causes of the Transformation of Contract
    Contract and the Realization of Economic Expectations
    Conclusions
5. Tort, Insurance and Social Responsibility
    Judicial Widening of Tort Responsibility
    The Shift of Liability from Tort to Insurance
    Industrial Accident Insurance
    Automobile Accidents - Tort and Insurance
    Some Reform Proposals - A Survey
    Some Comparative Approaches
    Tort and Insurance - Alternative Remedies and the
     Problem of Double Compensation
    Some Conclusions
6. Criminal Law in a Changing World
    Fundamentalist and Utilitarian Approaches to the Function of Criminal Law
    Social Values and the Ambit of Criminal Law
    Economic Crimes against the Community
    Environmental Pollution and the Criminal Law
    Sexual Permissiveness and the Criminal Law
    Criminal Law in the Welfare State - Mens Rea and the Public Welfare Offence
    The Corporation and Criminal Liability
    Modern Science and the Responsibility of the Individual
    Modern Psychology, Control over Behaviour and the Criminal Law
    Genetic Engineering and the Responsibility of the Individual
    Changing Purposes of Punishment
    Alternatives to the Criminal Sanction
    What Future for Criminal Law?
7. Family Law
    Basic Concepts of the Western Family
    The indissolubility of the Marriage Tie
    Changing Foundations for the Cohesion of the Family
    Procreation of Life as the Supreme Goal of Marriage
    Legitimacy of Abortion
    Equality of Husband and Wife in the Marriage Community
    Matrimonial Property Law
    Parents and Children
    The State and the Family
Part Three - Economic Power, the State and the Law
8. Economic Competition, Regulation and the Public Interest:
    The Dilemmas of Anti-Trust
    Limits of the Ideology of Competition
    Basic Concepts and Goals of Anti-Trust
    Rule of Reason and Public Interest
    Mergers
    Illegality per se
    Conspiracy and Parallelism
    Competition and Cooperation: The Dilemma of Anti-Trust
    The Place of Public Enterprise
9. Corporate Power, the Individual and the State
    Legal Cloaks of Corporate Power
    The Foundation - Social and Legal Impacts
    The Social Impact of Institutionalized Giving
    Corporate Power and the State
    Recent Analyses of the Function of the Large Corporation
    The Quasi-Public Power of the Large Corporation and the Problem of Legal Control
    The Role of Organized Labour
    Legal Remedies for Abuses of Group Power: Total Socialization
    Public and Private Enterprise in a Mixed Economy
    Types of State Enterprise
    Partnership of Capital and Labour
    Public Regulation of Economic Activities
    Group Power and the Individual
    Legal Controls of Labour Unions
    Legislative Protection of 'Union Democracy'
    Public Authority, Private Power and the Individual - Some Conclusions
Part Four - The Growing Role of Public Law
10. The Growth of Administration and the Evolution of Public Law
    The Growth of the Administrative Function
    The Need for a System of Public Law
    Separation of Powers and Administrative Law
    The Limits of Administrative Discretion
11. Government Liability, Administrative Discretion and the Individual
    Some Lessons from the Continent
12. The Problem of Administrative Remedies and Procedures
    French and German Approaches
    Remedies in the Common-Law Systems
    Injunction and Declaratory Judgement as Administrative Remedies
    Community Interests as' Grievances
    Administrative Justice: Some Comparative Observations
    Public Power and the Individual: Some New Approaches
    The Ombudsman
Part Five - The Changing Scope of International Law
13. National Sovereignty and World Order in the Nuclear Age
    National Sovereignty and the United Nations 
    Expanding National Claims to the Sea
    Regional Groupings and the Universal International Law
    The Development of International Law on Three Levels
14. The Broadening Scope of International Law
    New Dimensions of lnternational Law
    New Subjects of International Law
    International Economic Development Law and the Role of Private
    Corporations
    The Legal Character of lnternational State Transactions
    The Impact of State Trading on International Legal Obligations
    Government Immunities in International Transactions 
    International Minimum Standards of Justice
Part Six - The Function of Law in Contemporary Society
15. The Rule of Law, the Individual and the Welfare State Group and Individual
16. The Changing Role of Law in the Interdependent Society
    The Changing Role of the Lawyer
    The Role of the State in the Overcrowded Society 
    Conclusions
References
Table of Cases
Table of Statutes
Select Bibliography
Index
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Author Details
W. Friedmann, LL.D. (London), Dr. Jur. (Berlin), LL.M. (Melbourne), Of the Middle Temple, Barrist.er-at-Law, Professor of International Law and Director of International Legal Research, Columbia University.
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