Communitarianism in Law and Society

Paul van Seters was professor of legal sociology at Tilburg University, the Netherlands. Currently, he is director of Globus, and professor of globalization and sustainable development in Tias Business School at Tilburg University. He is the coeditor of Globalization and Its New Divides, with Bas de Gaay Fortman and Arie de Ruiter.

Just when the communitarian political movement appears to be languishing in the United States, Paul van Seters has opened a lively cross-Atlantic dialogue on communitarian approaches in law and society. With essays by Philip Selznick, Roger Cotterrell, and other distinguished scholars, this collection explores the prospects for a jurisprudence rooted in shared understandings, mutual trust, and solidarity. Using the emergent law of the European Union as a special test case, several authors ask how liberalism can be reconstructed so as to give due recognition to the moral worth and significance of community.

• Part 1 Preface: Law and Communitarianism: Constraints and OpportunitiesPart 2 Introduction: Communitarianism in Law and SocietyPart 3 Law and Community in Socio-Legal StudiesChapter 4 The Jurisprudence of Communitarian LiberalismChapter 5 Living Law Revisited: Communitarianism and Sociology of LawChapter 6 Law and Society in JapanPart 7 Communitarianism in the European ArenaChapter 8 The European Union as Community: An Argument about the Public Sphere in International Society and PoliticsChapter 9 Deepening Social Europe through Legal PluralismChapter 10 A Liberal Critique of Communitarian EconomicsPart 11 The Social Values of LawChapter 12 Protection or Prohibition of Aggressive Speech? Arguments from the Liberal and Communitarian PerspectivesChapter 13 The Tension between the Law of Justice and the Law of LoveChapter 14 The Appeal to Common Tradition: Its Progressive PotentialPart 15 Conclusion: Towards a 'Communitarian' Concept of Law: The Case of the Questionable European Constitution