Workshop

The sociology of law and other empirical studies of law cannot be fully understood without considering the social environments in which these research practices are embedded. In this sense, the exchange of ideas among scholars from different cultures and regions is essential for advancing the field. With this in mind, the workshop Transregional Histories of Sociological Thought in/on Law seeks to explore the diverse and interconnected trajectories of socio-legal scholarship across regions.

Rather than focusing on developments within individual nation-states, the workshop aims to uncover broader regional patterns and the histoires croisées (Werner & Zimmermann 2006) that link them. It responds to the limitations of methodological nationalism that often constrain disciplinary histories, advocating instead for a comparative and transregional historiographical perspective.

The workshop also deliberately looks beyond the label “sociology of law.” In many contexts, socio-legal inquiry has developed under different designations—such as “law and society” studies, legal anthropology, or within other branches of the social sciences. Also, the different forms of “sociological jurisprudence”, as far as they have been truly sociological and not in name only, need to be considered. The aim is therefore to foster a broad and inclusive perspective that embraces this diversity of terminology, methods, and institutional contexts. 

Building on the work of the History of Sociology of Law section of the Elgar International Encyclopedia of the Sociology of Law, the workshop is explicitly oriented toward the production of a collective publication. Participants will present and discuss case studies, comparative analyses, and theoretical reflections that examine socio-legal trajectories and their regional or transregional entanglements, highlighting both internal dynamics and cross-cultural exchanges that have shaped socio-legal knowledge over time.