This law and society reader taps a rich and diverse literature to compare and contrast the legal experience of many different cultures and nations. Drawing on a variety of methodological approaches, the selections allow students to evaluate whether there are general patterns that explain how legal systems work (or fail to work) and how these patterns relate to the structural and cultural facts of society.Every country, of course, has its own legal system, and no two systems are the same. But in teaching law and society, texts have focused nearly exclusively on American readings to the neglect of comparative and international work. This reader fills an obvious gap. It recognizes that law is increasingly global and cross-national, and shows how law relates to society in different times and places, the world over.

Product Description: This book is the first comprehensive history of the intellectual training and social placement of lawyers in Latin America. Pérez-Perdomo examines the Roman legal roots of the Latin American tradition and traces the development of legal education and practice in Latin America from the 16th century to the present...read more

Product Description: This volume of essays examines how the legal systems of the chief countries of Latin America and Mediterranean Europe―Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, France, Italy, and Spain―changed in the last quarter of the 20th century...read more