83515291 Law a Sub System of Society

Amity Law School, Lucknow Sociology___________________________Assignment

Submitted to: Dr. (Ms.) Ritu Agarwal

Submitted by: Animesh Kumar B.A.LL.B. (H), V Sem. Enroll. No. A8108309035

Law - Sub system of society

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PREFACE This assignment take cares of the topic Law-Sub system of society of sociology from social ‘

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as well as legal perspective. History, Etymology & Usage, Social changes, social controls of all have acquired very important place as a subject of Sociology. I am sure my effort would these inclusions and will keep on guiding me as faculty have done earlier. I am extremely thankful to my faculty Dr. (Ms.) Ritu Agarwal for the extra time given to me for preparation of this assignment I took too much time to complete the given task.

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Sociology - Assignment| Amity Law School, Lucknow


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Acknowledgment This assignment is intended to cover the topic “Law- a sub system of society” of sociology. Basic and pre-requisite information have been included.

I acknowledge the inspiration and blessing of my respected faculty Dr. (Ms.) Ritu Agarwal. She made my all doubt crystal clear.

I am full of gratitude to my seniors Pratik Mishra, Swastik Vishwakarma, Mayank Dubey and Abhas Sharma for the patience shown and encouragement given to complete this assignment.

My heartful thanks are due to my friends Priyanshu, Pallvi, Prashant, Purusharth, Krishnat, Sridhar (Anna) and Manisha for providing relevant resources.

In the last but not the least, my sense of gratitude is due to AMITY LAW SCHOOL, LUCKNOW.

Every effort has been made to avoid errors and mistakes; however their presence cannot be ruled out.

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Index Introduction..........................................................................................................1 Etymology & Usage..............................................................................................3 

Hunter-gatherer bands...............................................................................5

Law and Social Changes.......................................................................................6 

Formal social control.................................................................................6

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Applications of social control theory.........................................................6

Conclusion............................................................................................................9 Bibliography.......................................................................................................10

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Introduction A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Human societies are characterized by patterns of relationships (social relations) between individuals who share a distinctive culture and institutions; a given society may be described as the sum total of such relationships among its constituent members. In social sciences, a society invariably entails social stratification and/or dominance hierarchy. Law is rooted in social institutions, in socio-economic network. These social factors influence the course of law or the direction of legal change. This is the outcome of personal and social interactions which are variable and often unpredictable. At the same time, law may itself change social norms in various ways. For example, in free India, legal abolition of untouchability is an attempt to change a long-standing social norm. Yet it has not succeeded much due to inadequate social support. Thus there is a reciprocal relationship between law and society. This assignment will discuss about the law and its impact in social change with special reference from Indian society. Insofar as it is collaborative, a society can enable its members to benefit in ways that would not otherwise be possible on an individual basis; both individual and social (common) benefits can thus be distinguished, or in many cases found to overlap. A society can also consist of like-minded people governed by their own norms and values within a dominant, larger society. This is sometimes referred to as a subculture, a term used extensively within criminology.

Lawrence Friedman and Jack Ladinsky, however, in the context of a discussion of the social effects of law adopt a definition of social change as “any non-repetitive alteration in the established modes of behaviour in society.” The qualification „nonrepetitive‟ is important here for the definition recognize that few societies, if any, are wholly statie. The term „social change‟ is also used to indicate the changes that take place in human interactions and inter-relations. Society is a „web-relationship‟ and social change obviously means a change in the system of social relationship where a social relationship is understood in terms of social processes and social interactions and social organizations.

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Thus, the term, „social change‟ is used to indicate desirable variations in social institution, social processes and social organization. It includes alterations in the structure and the functions of the society. According to Glanville Williams “Law is the cement of society and also an essential medium of change”. It is very much in coherence of what we call in common parlance. Nevertheless, what exactly a person who is a lawyer or a jurist or a social scientist or a jurisprudence teacher perceives about the role of law in society and how much it defers from thinking that of a „common man‟. Moreover, does this entire divergence or convergence of opinion, what we call understanding, leads to further level of it to design future new steps? Or rather, does human intelligentsia affects the role of law in society. As it is evident from evolutionary past of both society and law, they evolved greatly with times. There origin can be traced together with the start of the civilization. They both built upon each other to evolve as a complex whole for humanity, by humanity, of humanity and to take human kind next step further; from Egalitarian, Agrarian, Feudalist, Industrial and Post- Industrial societies thereby changing roles of law in several perspectives (from naturalism to pluralism & Marxism to functionalism and so on) and in its objects manifolds. About the role or function of law in society it been said, it has to bring stability (to maintain status quo) and social solidarity and order. However, the fundamental object of any Law in society is to provide sense of security and protection from fear from unknown situations. Other interesting aspect of law in society is its dynamic nature. As said above, law is cement of society bring solidarity to social institutions and structures, also this Cement has to be use to create a new one or to mend the existing one in the light of changing requirement. It is a mean to bring social change as well as to preserving and strengthening institutions, which are essential need, for society and its functionality. The next query comes, can society foresee its upcoming need to correspond it with suitable laws and hence bring social change? But before start, it is important to understand what „so-much-talked -society‟ is? Is it a gross or aggregate of people, a community, or a neighbourhood? According to McIver and Page, Society is the arrangement of means and methods, rights and mutual cooperations, between its members and in groups through control and liberty. It is a web of human inter-relations. Reauter defines it as, „society is an abstract which denotes a complex mutual relation between the members of a group‟. A Society consists of mutual awareness and feeling of participation. 2



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Let us come to the story, one of my friend Prabhu is blind and he is studying in a college in Delhi. When I went Delhi, he invited me to his hostel that was for blind students. I was surprised to see all the blind people moving around, stepping up and down in stairs, without ever hitting each other once. I asked Prabhu about it, and he replied, „we have walking rules. We use to walk always on our left side and use to tap if we are to cross and if there is any other person is coming from opposite side replies with the similar tap to make one aware‟. I asked him, „who made these rules, Warden?‟ He replied smilingly „No he‟s an eyed one… they are since beginning‟ and we laughed. This is what Law is doing in society and yes as society we can try to foresee things and make laws for it (we have more environmental laws, we are foreseeing.. a fear perhaps.) More broadly, a society may be described as an economic, social, or industrial infrastructure, made up of a varied collection of individuals. Members of a society may be from different ethnic groups. A society can be a particular ethnic group, such as the Saxons; a nation state, such as Bhutan; or a broader cultural group, such as a Western society. The word society may also refer to an organized voluntary association of people for religious, benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic, or other purposes. A "society" may even, though more by means of metaphor refer to a social organism such as an ant colony or any cooperative aggregate such as, for example, in some formulations of artificial intelligence.

Etymology & Usage The term "society" came from the Latin word societas, which in turn was derived from the noun socius ("comrade, friend, ally"; adjectival form socialis) thus used to describe a bond or interaction among parties that are friendly, or at least civil. Without an article, the term can refer to the entirety of humanity (also: 'society in general', 'society at large', etc.), although those who are unfriendly or uncivil to the remainder of society in this sense may be deemed to be "antisocial". Used in the sense of an association, a society is a body of individuals outlined by the bounds of functional interdependence, possibly comprising characteristics such as national or cultural identity, social solidarity, language, or hierarchical organization. In anthropology Human societies are most often organized according to their primary means of subsistence. Social scientists have identified hunter-gatherer societies, nomadic pastoral societies, horticulturalist or simple farming societies, and intensive agricultural societies, also called civilizations. Some consider industrial and postindustrial societies to be qualitatively different from traditional agricultural societies.

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Today, anthropologists and many social scientists vigorously oppose the notion of cultural evolution and rigid "stages" such as these. In fact, much anthropological data has suggested that complexity (civilization, population growth and density, specialization, etc.) does not always take the form of hierarchical social organization or stratification [citation needed]. Also, cultural relativism as a widespread approach or ethic has largely replaced notions of "primitive", better/worse, or "progress" in relation to cultures (including their material culture/technology and social organization). According to anthropologist Maurice Godelier, one critical novelty in human society, in contrast to humanity's closest biological relatives (chimpanzees and bonobo), is the parental role assumed by the males, which supposedly would be absent in our nearest relatives for whom paternity is not generally determinable. In political science societies may also be organized according to their political structure. In order of increasing size and complexity, there are bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and state societies. These structures may have varying degrees of political power, depending on the cultural, geographical, and historical environments that these societies must contend with. Thus, a more isolated society with the same level of technology and culture as other societies is more likely to survive than one in closer proximity to others that may encroach on their resources (see history for examples). A society that is unable to offer an effective response to other societies it competes with will usually be subsumed into the culture of the competing society (see technology for examples). In sociology sociologist Gerhard Lenski differentiates societies based on their level of technology, communication, and economy: 

Hunters and gatherers,

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Simple agricultural,

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Advanced agricultural,

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Industrial, and

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Special (e.g. fishing societies or maritime societies).

This is similar to the system earlier developed by anthropologists Morton H. Fried, a conflict theorist, and Elman Service, an integration theorist, who have produced a system of classification for societies in all human cultures based on the evolution of social inequality and the role of the state. This system of classification contains four categories:

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H un ter -gatherer bands (categori zation of duti es and responsibil ities).

Tribal societies in which there are some limited instances of social rank and prestige. Stratified structures led by chieftains, Civilizations, with complex social hierarchies and organized institutional governments. In addition to this there are: Humanity, mankind, upon which rest all the elements of society, including society's beliefs. Virtual society, a society based on online identity, which is evolving in the information age. Over time, some cultures have progressed toward more complex forms of organization and control. This cultural evolution has a profound effect on patterns of community. Hunter-gatherer tribes settled around seasonal food stocks to become agrarian villages. Villages grew to become towns and ci ties. Cities turned into city-states and nation-states. Many societies distribute largess at the behest of some individual or some larger group of people. This type of generosity can be seen in all known cultures; typically, prestige accrues to the generous individual or group. Conversely, members of a society may also shun or scapegoat members of the society who violate its norms. Mechanisms such as gift-giving, joking relationships and scapegoating, which may be seen in various types of human groupings, tend to be institutionalized within a society. Social evolution as a phenomenon carries with it certain elements that could be detrimental to the population it serves. Some societies bestow status on an individual or group of people when that individual or group performs an admired or desired action. This type of recognition is bestowed in the form of a name, title, manner of dress, or monetary reward. In many societies, adult male or female status is subject to a ritual or process of this type. Altruistic action in the interests of the larger group is seen in virtually all societies. The phenomena of community action, shunning, scapegoating, generosity, shared risk, and reward are common to many forms of society.

Law and Social Changes Social control refers generally to societal and political mechanisms or processes that regulate individual and group behaviour, leading to conformity and compliance to the rules of a given society, state, or social group. Many mechanisms of social control are cross-cultural, if only in the control mechanisms used to prevent the establishment of chaos or anomie. Some theorists, such as Émile Durkheim , refer to this form of control as regulation. Sociologists identify two basic forms of social controls: Internalisation of norms and values, and External sanctions, which can be either positive (rewards) or negative (punishment). Social control theory began to be studied as a separate field in the early 20th century. The means to enforce social control can 5



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be either formal or informal. Sociologist Edward A. Ross argued that belief systems exert a greater control on human behaviour than laws imposed by government, no matter what form the beliefs take. I nf ormal social control

The social values that are present in individuals are products of informal social control. It is exercised by a society without explicitly stating these rules and is expressed through customs, norms, and mores. Individuals are socialized whether consciously or subconsciously. During informal sanctions, ridicule or ostracism can cause a straying towards norms. The person internalizes these mores and norms. Traditional society uses mostly informal social control embedded in its customary culture relying on the socialization of its members to establish social order. Religion is thought of by some as a common and historically established form of informal social control. More rigidly-structured societies may place increased reliance on formal mechanisms. Informal sanctions may include shame, ridicule, sarcasm, criticism and disapproval. In extreme cases sanctions may include social discrimination and exclusion. This implied social control usually has more effect on individuals because they become internalized and thus an aspect of personality. Informal sanctions check 'deviant' behaviour. An example of a negative sanction comes from a scene in the Pink Floyd film 'The Wall,' whereby the young protagonist is ridiculed and verbally abused by a high school teacher for writing poetry in a mathematics class . As with formal controls, informal controls reward or punish acceptable or unacceptable behaviour (i.e., deviance). Informal controls are varied and differ from individual to individual, group to group and society to society. For example, at a women's institute meeting, a disapproving look might convey the message that it is inappropriate to flirt with the minister. In a criminal gang, on the other hand, a stronger sanction applies in the case of someone threatening to inform to the police. Formal social control

Formal social control is expressed through law as statutes, rules, and regulations against deviant behaviour. It is conducted by government and organizations using law enforcement mechanisms and other formal sanctions such as fines and imprisonment. In democratic societies the goals and mechanisms of formal social control are determined through legislation by elected representatives and thus enjoy a measure of support from the population and voluntary compliance. Applications of social control theory

According to the propaganda model theory, the leaders of modern, corporatedominated societies employ indoctrination as a means of social control. Theorists such as Noam Chomsky have argued that systemic bias exists in the modern media. The marketing, advertising, and public relations industries have thus been said to utilize mass communications to aid the interests of certain business elites. Powerful economic and religious lobbyists have often used school systems and centralised electronic communications to influence public opinion. Democracy is restricted as the 6



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majority is not given the information necessary to make rational decisions about ethical, social, environmental, or economic issues. To maintain control and regulate their subjects, authoritarian organizations and governments promulgate rules and issue decrees. However, due to a lack of popular support for enforcement, these entities may rely more on force and other severe sanctions such as censorship, expulsion and limits on political freedom. Some totalitarian governments, such as the late Soviet Union or the current North Korea, rely on the mechanisms of the police state. Sociologists consider informal means of social control vital in maintaining public order, but also recognize the necessity of formal means as societies become more complex and for responding to emergencies. The study of social control falls primarily within the academic disciplines of anthropology, political science, and sociology. The continual application of low-level fear, as in mass surveillance or an electronic police state also exerts a powerful coercive force upon a populace. Closer analysis of the role of law vis-à-vis social change leads us to distinguish between the direct and the indirect aspects of the role of law. Law plays an important indirect role in regard to social change by shaping have a direct impact on society. For example: A law setting up a compulsory educational system. On the other hand, law interacts in many cases indirectly with basic social institutions in a manner constituting a direct relationship between law and social change. For example: A law designed to prohibit polygamy. Law plays an agent of modernization and social change. It is also an indicator of the nature of societal complexity and its attendant problems of integration. Further, the reinforcement of our belief in the age old panchayat system, the abolition of the abhorables practices of untouchability, child marriage, sati dowry, etc are typical illustrations of social change being brought about in the country through law. Law is an effective medium or agency, instrumental in bringing about social change in the country or in any region in particular. Therefore, we rejuvenate our belief that law has been pivotal in introducing changes in the societal structure and relationships and continue to be so. An important instrument of change the state employs in the legislative weapon. To start with, it gives expression to the goal towards which the state is moving. India is an outstanding example of the employment of the legislative measures to initiate change. The promulgation of Indian Constitution was the first step in this direction. Institutionalised inequality was an accepted principle of Indian caste system; equal justice under equal circumstances was unknown under the traditional Indian set up;

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equality of opportunity was meaningless under a system where education and occupation was caste-based. A variety of social legislations are being introduced in independent India to bring about change. They cover legislations for the welfare of the downtrodden in the agrarian sector, to emancipate women, to eradicate untouchability, to facilitate the social and economic development of the tribunal population, etc. All these legislations are slowly but surely making their impact on the Indian social fabric. As of today, the decisions of the Court are not just being tested on the touch stone of social justice, but indeed they are being cited of as precursors to „social rights‟. The Court has pro-actively and vigorously taken up to cause of social justice and has gone to the extent of articulating newer social rights such as the right to food, right to health, right to education. Thus, the march of law is clearly in favour of Supreme Court having performed a proactive role in social change of the languishing masses. It certainly has acted as a catalyst in the process of social transformation of people wherein the dilution of caste inequalities, protective measures for the weak and vulnerable sections, providing for the dignified existence of those living under unwholesome conditions, etc, are the illustrious examples in this regards. Social change involves an alteration of society; its economic structure, values and beliefs, and its economic, political and social dimensions also undergo modification. However, social change does not affect all aspects of society in the same manner. While much of social change is brought about by material changes such as technology, new patterns of production, etc, other conditions are also necessary. For example, like we have discussed it before, legal prohibition of untouchability in free India has not succeeded because of inadequate social support. Nonetheless, when law cannot bring about change without social support, it still can create certain preconditions for social change. Moreover, after independence, the Constitution of India provided far-reaching guidelines for change. Its directive principle suggested a blue-print for a new nation. De-recognition of caste-system, equality before the law, and equal opportunities for all in economic, political and social spheres were some of the high points of the Indian Constitution. Some areas where law has given the influence for social change are:  Area of agrarian reform policy and legislation;  Area of implementation of untouchability abolition law;  The normative aspects of employment and educational reservation for the

scheduled castes and scheduled tribes under the Constitution; 8



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 The allied field of abolition of bonded labour;  The problem of substantive impact of changes in the family law marriage,

equal rights of women to inheritance and dowry.

Conclusion Modern systems theory provides a new paradigm for the analysis of society. Luhmann argues that current thinking about how law operates within a modern society is seriously deficient. In this volume he lays out the theoretical and methodological tools that, he argues, can advance our understanding of contemporary society and, in particular, of the identity, performance, and function of the legal system within that society. In systems theory, society is its communications: they are its empirical reality; the items that can be observed and studied. Systems theory identifies how communications operate within a physical world and how different sub-systems of communication operate alongside each other. Luhmann uses systems theory to address a question central to legal theory: what differentiates law from other parts of society? However, unlike conventional legal theory, this volume seeks to provide an answer in terms of a general social theory: a methodology that answers this question in a manner applicable not only to law, but also to all the other complex and highly differentiated systems within modern society, such as politics, the economy, religion, the media, and education. This truly sociological approach offers profound insights into the relationships between law and all of these other social systems. The law through legislative or administrative responses to new social conditions and ideas, as well as through judicial re-interpretations of constitutions statues or precedents, increasingly not only articulates but sets the course for major social changes. The law is one of many responses to such changes. In certain respects it is the most important, since it represents the authority of the state, and its sanctioning power. The legal response to a given social or technological problem is therefore in itself a major social action which may aggravate a given problem or alleviate and help to solve it. Law is combination of human intelligentsia and common understanding of reason and just, in common will of pursuance to cater the common social needs of present and future.

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Bibliography

Books Referred:

An Aspect of Sociological Jurisprudence and Social Change: Tracing the Role of Supreme Court of India by Tarun Jain  Law in a Changing Society (Chapter 1, Chapter 15 and Chapter 16) by W. Friedman  Toward A Sociology of Law (Chapter 2, Chapter 3 and Chapter 4) by Upendra Baxi  An Introduction to Sociology by Shankar Rao 

Websites Referred:    

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www.scribd.com www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com www.wikipedia.org www.jstor.org


83515291 Law a Sub System of Society

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