Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-mnl9s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-26T19:16:34.694Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Internal/External Distinction and the Notion of a “Practice” in Legal Theory and Sociolegal Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Brian Z. Tamanaha
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This article analyzes the growing trend in legal and sociolegal theory to place a pivotal emphasis on the internal/external distinction. To provide a better understanding for the application of this distinction, the author elaborates on its origins in the philosophy of social sciences. Using detailed legal examples, he then develops a theory of a practice to help serve as an organizing concept for many applications of the distinction. Finally, applying this background and the notion of a practice, the author analyzes the different uses of the distinction in legal and sociolegal theory.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , 1996 , pp. 163 - 204
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 by The Law and Society Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

This article is a modified version of chapter 6 of my forthcoming book, Realistic Sociolegal Theory: A Response to Postmodernism. I thank Elizabeth van Schilfgaarde and Roger Cotterrell for valuable criticisms of earlier drafts. The article was inspired by a presentation by Professor Cotterrell at Utrecht University; conversations with Jan Wijbe Oos-terkamp were very helpful in clarifying my ideas.

References

Barnes, Barry (1974) Scientific Knowledge and Sociological Theory. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Barnes, Barry (1977) Interests and the Growth of Knowledge. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Bauman, Zygmut (1989) “Hermeneutics and Modern Social Theory,” in Held, D. & Thompson, J. B., eds., Social Theory of Modern Societies. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Black, Donald (1976) The Behavior of Law. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Bloor, David (1976) Knowledge and Social Imagery. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Bloor, David (1984) “The Sociology of Reasons,” in Brown 1984.Google Scholar
Bohman, James F. (1991) New Philosophy of Social Science. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Brown, James, ed. (1984) Scientific Rationality: The Sociological Turn. Dordrecht, Holland: Kluwer Academic Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cardozo, Benjamin N. (1921) The Nature of the Judicial Process. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Cotterrell, Roger (1983) “The Sociological Concept of Law,” 10 J. of Law & Society 241.Google Scholar
Cotterrell, Roger (1989) The Politics of Jurisprudence. London: Butterworths.Google Scholar
Davidson, Donald (1984) Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Dreyfus, Hubert (1986) “Why Studies of Human Capacities Modeled on Ideal Natural Science Can Never Achieve Their Goal,” in Margolis et al. 1986.Google Scholar
Dworkin, Ronald M. (1986) Law's Empire. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.Google Scholar
Dworkin, Ronald M. (1987) “Legal Theory and the Problem of Sense,” in Gavison, R., ed., Issues in Contemporary Legal Philosophy. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Edgerton, Robert B. (1985) Rules, Exceptions and Social Order. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, H. (1992) “The Growing Disjunction between Legal Education and the Legal Profession,” 91 Michigan Law Rev. 34, 47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fish, Stanley E. (1989) Doing What Comes Naturally. Durham, NC: Duke Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Geertz, Clifford (1973) The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Giddens, Anthony, & Turner, Jonathan, eds. (1987) Social Theory Today. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Gordon, Robert (1990) “New Developments in Legal Theory,” in Kairys 1990.Google Scholar
Hart, H. L. A. (1961) The Concept of Law. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Hart, H. L. A. (1983) Essays in Jurisprudence and Philosophy. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hart, H. L. A. (1994) The Concept of Law. 2d Ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Hesse, Mary (1980) Revolutions and Reconstructions in the Philosophy of Science. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Hiley, David R., Bohman, James F., & Shusterman, Richard, eds. (1991) The Interpretive Turn. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Hollis, Martin, & Lukes, Steven (1982) Rationalism and Relativism. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Homans, George C. (1987) “Behaviorism and After,” in Giddens & Turner 1987.Google Scholar
Horwitz, Morton J. (1977) The Transformation of American Law, 1780–1860. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horwitz, Morton J. (1992) The Transformation of American Law, 1870–1960. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunt, Alan (1987) “The Critique of Law: What Is 'Critical' about Critical Legal Theory?” in Fitzpatrick, P. & Hunt, A., eds., Critical Legal Studies. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Jarvie, Ian (1984) “A Plague on Both Your Houses,” in Brown 1984.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kairys, David, ed. (1990) The Politics of Law: A Progressive Critique. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Kennedy, Duncan (1986) “Freedom and Constraint in Adjudication: A Critical Phenomenology,” 36 J. of Legal Education 518.Google Scholar
Kronman, Anthony T. (1983) Max Weber. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Kuhn, Thomas S. (1962) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kuhn, Thomas S. (1977) The Essential Tension. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laudan, Larry (1984) “The Pseudo-Science of Science,” in Brown 1984.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacCormick, Neil (1981) H. L. A. Hart. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, Alasdair (1984) After Virtue. Notre Dame, IN: Univ. of Notre Dame.Google Scholar
Margolis, Joseph (1986) “Rationality and Realism,” in Margolis et al. 1986.Google Scholar
Margolis, Joseph, Krausz, M., & Burian, R. M. (1986) Rationality, Relativism and the Human Sciences. Dordrecht, Holland: Kluwer Academic Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mensch, Elizabeth (1990) “The History of Mainstream Legal Thought,” in Kairys 1990.Google Scholar
Moore, Michael M. (1989) “The Interpretive Turn in Modern Theory: A Turn for the Worse?” 41 Stanford Law Rev. 871.Google Scholar
Mulkay, Michael J. (1979) Science and the Sociology of Knowledge. London: G. Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Posner, Richard (1990) The Problems of Jurisprudence. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Quine, Quine Willard Van (1975) “On Empirically Equivalent Systems of the World,” 9 Erkenntnis 316.Google Scholar
Quine, Quine Willard Van (1980) From a Logical Point of View. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rabinow, Paul, & Sullivan, William M. (1979a) “The Interpretive Turn: Emergence of An Approach,” in Rabinow & Sullivan 1979b.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rabinow, Paul, & Sullivan, William M., eds. (1979b) Interpretive Social Science. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raz, Joseph (1979) The Authority of Law. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Root, Michael (1993) Philosophy of Social Science. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Rorty, Richard (1979) Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Rorty, Richard (1983) “Method and Morality” in Haan, N. et al., eds., Social Science as Moral Inquiry. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Alexander (1988) Philosophy of Social Science. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Roth, Paul A. (1987) Meaning and Method in the Social Sciences. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Schutz, Alfred (1962) The Problem of Social Reality. The Hague: Martinus Nijoff.Google Scholar
Schutz, Alfred (1967) The Phenomenology of the Social World. Evanston, IL: Northwestern Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Singer, Joseph (1988) “Legal Realism Now,” 76 California Law Rev. 467.Google Scholar
Tamanaha, Brian (1993) Understanding Law in Micronesia: An Interpretive Approach to Transplanted Law. New York: E. J. Brill Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Charles (1979) “Interpretation and the Sciences of Man,” in Rabinow & Sullivan 1979b.Google Scholar
Trubek, David M. (1984) “Where the Action Is: Critical Legal Studies and Empiricism,” 36 Stanford Law Rev. 575.Google Scholar
Turner, Stephen P. (1981) “Interpretive Charity, Durkheim and the 'Strong Programme' in the Sociology of Science,” 11 Philosophy of the Social Sciences 231.Google Scholar
Weber, Max (1964) The Theory of Social and Economic Organization. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Winch, Peter (1958) The Idea of a Social Science and Its Relation to Philosophy. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Winch, Peter (1964) “Understanding a Primitive Society,” 1 American Philosophy Q. 307.Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1958) Philosophical Investigations. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar