BLINDING INSIGHTS - THE LIMITS OF A REFLEXIVE SOCIOLOGY OF LAW

Is there a danger that sociological approaches to law end up creating law in their own image? Can they set their own limits? Could they help further rather than hinder the process by which law becomes more tech nocratic? Continuing a debate with Roger Cotterrell, this paper offers an examination of Cotterrell's suggestion, in the last issue, that th ese dangers can be avoided provided that sociological interpretation o f legal ideas recognizes an allegiance to law rather than to academic sociology. By contrast, I propose a reflexive strategy intended to inv ite sociology? to examine the ways in which its discourses and practic es are both similar to bur also different from those of law.