Law and Social Theory: Normativity, Coercion, and Exchange

Prof. Vik Kanwar

Spring Semester 2015
Course Description
In this class we will engage with fundamental questions of legal and political theory, and do so at a
certain level of abstraction that taps into the best of classic and contemporary social theory. We will
look at two aspects of lawnormativity and coercion (and to a lesser extent a third element we can call
exchange)and seen how various theorists treat these topics.
Hobbes claimed we have been able to exit the state of nature (unsociability or disorder) by creating a
modern state which monopolizes violence and enforces a civil peace. Hobbes presupposes that before
law, society was chaotic; law raises humanity from its animal existence. Modern sociologists and
anthropologists would say this description is incomplete at best. Here, we will look beyond foundational
myths of the state and bring into view continual negotiations of violence and morality in defining law
and settling legal disputes. This course introduces law students to the main traditions of social theory,
focusing particularly on how social thinkers understand law and legal institutions. Though case studies
will span the globe, we will read a largely western canon of writers (albeit not the ones taught in most
courses on jurisprudence and legal philosophy): Maine, Marx, Freud, Weber, Durkheim, Elias, Foucault,
Bourdieu, Habermas, Luhmann, Ellickson, and Unger, all of whom track the continuing emergence of
modern society through the interplay of norms and force. These sociological understandings can be
supplemented by anthropological theories of Boas, Turner, Cohn, Geertz, Comaroff, and Scott, whose
works track the emergence of forms of lawfulness present in state and non-state entities as, among
other things, the codification of manners, forms of play, theatrical performance, the work of rumors,
formalization of magic, or channelization of private wars. Through lectures and class discussions we will
explore how these thinkers approached laws social forms and functions; its relationship to other social
institutions, its underlying ideals, and its operative controls. The course is organized around a main
theme of law-like authority emerging out of problems of order and meaning, which will in turn serve
to introduce the main sociological theories of law and legal change, modernity and postmodernity, the
rule of law and disciplinary society, moral authority, and legal pluralism; cultural identity; conflict
management; third party roles in cross-cultural conflict. While we will focus primarily on the emergence
or failure of the emergence of state authority, specific illustrations of the dynamics of norms and force
may range from disputes and challenges arising in TV Westerns, civil wars, Balinese cock fights, cricket
matches, American supermarkets, and Indian auto accidents. The course does not presuppose prior
knowledge of sociology or social theory.
We will explore, through myriad disciplines, three answers to the Hobbesian question: How can one
establish a society in which force and fraud are not routinely used in satisfying wants?: normative,
coercive, and exchange. The contribution of Leviathan to political science and jurisprudence has been
incalculable. Here we will revisit the story of the state of nature through what the modern social
sciences tell us: sociology, history, archaeology, economics, anthropology, international relations, and
even comparative mythology. (Keeping in mind that among social sciences, law actually preceded non-

law approaches, and that the founders of various social sciencesMarx, Durkheim, Smith, Morgenthau,
Maine, Webermodeled theories on legal concepts, or used legal training as a point of departure. We
will start with the model proposed by Hobbes, an think of ourselves as skeptical editors, trying to help
Hobbes come up with a thicker, more complete theory without trashing his model altogether. Here are
some of the paths we can take, setting up each class session based on a mode of inquiry. (See topic list
below).
Topics for Class Sessions are Based on Modes of Inquiry:
(1) Taking Hobbes as a Starting Point. What is the importance of the Leviathan Metaphor?
Introducing three issues: Normativity, Coercion and Exchange.
(2) Working backward, or looking around the world, and seeing if there is anything actually
resembling the state of nature and see if the Leviathan metaphor works in practice. History
and anthropology could help us here. (Primitive Law: State Formation: Primordial, Mythic and
Evolutionary Accounts)
(3) Raising questions about the incomplete monopolization of force by the state, and the continued
existence of plural orders, whether alternative legal systems or elaborate criminal organizations.
(4) Questioning the role of fear and self-interest at the core of the model, and see if alternative
motivations and mechanisms (sympathy, commerce, morals, evolving customs and manners)
account for the creation of social and legal order.
(5) Raising questions based on alternative models of the state of nature For example, instead of
presupposing that before law, society was chaotic, we might look at tradition associated with
Rousseau and the early Marx presupposing that people lived in a harmonious self-organized
state, and the imposition of law actually creates divisions between people that had not existed
in a state of nature.
(6) Exploring those models that have not been proposed in political theory, but in other traditions
of thought, such as through comparative mythology and religion. What claims and overlaps do
we encounter here?
(7) Looking at ways normativity and coercion work in everyday life, law and order actually work,
and see if there is anything that an out the implications of the theory that continue to bear fruit.
For example, could political scientists, game theorists, and economists add to the description of
how relationships between protectors and clients are established and how these entities
continue to rely upon each other.
(8) Looking at the reenactment of the establishment of sovereignty in times of emergency and
exception.

(9) Looking at the common claim that the international sphere remains an anarchical state of
nature, and other claims refuting this.
(10) Mapping three concepts and how are they related in each of the above accounts: Normativity,
Coercion and Exchange.
Requirements
20% Class Presentation: 20 minute presentation on one of the core topics or readings listed below.
30% Book Review: A critical essay based on a reading of a book or a set of chapters in a book, surveying
the applicability of the book to the central concepts of the class. To be critical means to effectively
convey the intentions and intellectual context of an authors work and to ask appropriate questions
based on competing approaches or internal coherence. Students may (though they need not) engage in
original research or an evidence-based approach.
50% Take-Home Exam: This will be an integrative essay pulling together and comparing conceptions of
normativity, coercion, and exchange as constitutive elements of the law. This will be equivalent to a
research paper, and some advance preparation will be required.
Note on Attendance and Participation: Points lost in any of the categories above may be regained
through consistent class participation, which may account for up to five marks added to the class
presentation score. University policies and UGC guidelines concerning attendance will be followed.
Readings (Indicative)
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Abbott, K.W., Coercion and Communication: Frameworks for Evaluation of Economic

Sanctions, 19 NYU Journal of Intl Law & Politics 781 (1987)
Abbott, K.W., Robert O. Keohane, Andrew Moravcsik, Anne-Marie Slaughter, and Duncan
Snidal, The Concept of Legalization, International Organization, Vol. 54, p. 401, 2000.
Anderson, S., "Coercion", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2014 Edition),
Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entries/coercion/>.
Arendt, H. (1963a) On Revolution. New York: Viking Press
Arendt, H. (1963b) Eichmann in Israel. A report on the banality of evil. New York: Viking Press
Arendt, H. (1970) On Violence. London: Allen Lane/Penguin Press
Bailey, F.G., Strategems and Spoils: A Social Anthropology of Politics. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
(1969).
Balbus, I., Commodity Form and Legal Form: An Essay on the Relative Autonomy of the Law
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Baumgold, D. Pacifying Politics: Resistance, Violence, and Accountability in SeventeenthCentury Contract Theory Political Theory 21/1 (Feb. 1993): 627.
Blau, P. (1964). Exchange and Power in Social Life. New York: John Wiley & Sons;

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Bull, H. (1977, 2002), The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order In World Politics, Third Edition
(New York: Columbia University Press)
Canetti, E., Crowds and Power (Trans. Carol Stewart) 188-190 (1960, 1978).
Cooter, R. (1997). Normative Failure Theory Of Law, 82 Cornell L. Rev. 947.
Cover, R.M. (1986). Violence and the Word (1986) 95 Yale Law Journal 160129.
Cutler, A.C. (2003). Private Power and Global Authority: Transnational Merchant Law in the
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Delacroix, S. (2006). Legal norms and normativity: an essay in genealogy. Oxford: Hart
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Edmundson, W.A., Is Law Coercive? Legal Theory, Vol. 1, pp. 81-111 (1995).
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Further Information
1. A sample class lecture is available at the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6W-PI7Oi2Y