A succinct, clear, and accessible introduction to the role and place of law in modern society, this addition to the 'Clarendon Law Series' explores the idea that the legal system is a highly developed social system, which has a distinct character and structure, and which shapes and influences behaviour.

Denis Galligan is Professor of Socio-Legal Studies and Director of the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford. He is also a Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. He teaches law and society, administrative law and legal and social theory.

• 1: Setting the bounds of law in modern society


• 2: Approaches to law in society


• 3: Law as social rules


• 4: Law prior to rules


• 5: Law as a system of rules


• 6: Social spheres


• 7: The reception of law


• 8: Law and coercion


• 9: Legal pluralism: parallel legal orders


• 10: Extended legal pluralism: informal legal orders


• 11: Does law have social functions?


• 12: The social value of law


• 13: Forms of modern legal orders


• 14: Social foundations of the modern legal form


• 15: Implementation and the architecture of law


• 16: Implementation: the legal and social environment


• 17: Change through the law: the contours of compliance