Social law is an unified concept of law, which replaces the classical division of
public law
Public law is the part of law that governs relations and affairs between legal persons and a government, between different institutions within a state, between different branches of governments, as well as relationships between persons that ...
and
private law
Private law is that part of a legal system that governs interactions between individual persons. It is distinguished from public law, which deals with relationships between both natural and artificial persons (i.e., organizations) and the st ...
. The term has both been used to mean fields of law that fall between "core" private and public subjects, such as
corporate law
Corporate law (also known as company law or enterprise law) is the body of law governing the rights, relations, and conduct of persons, companies, organizations and businesses. The term refers to the legal practice of law relating to corpora ...
,
competition law
Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust ...
,
labour law
Labour laws (also spelled as labor laws), labour code or employment laws are those that mediate the relationship between workers, employing entities, trade unions, and the government. Collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship be ...
and
social security
Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance ...
, or as a unified concept for the whole of the law based on associations.
In reaction to classical jurisprudence in the 19th century, legal scholars questioned a rigid divide between private law and public law. The German legal philosopher,
Otto von Gierke
Otto Friedrich von Gierke, born Otto Friedrich Gierke (11 January 1841 – 10 October 1921), was a German legal scholar and historian. He is considered today as one of the most influential and important legal scholars of the 19th and 20th centur ...
worked to develop a comprehensive history and theory of "social law" (''Soziales Recht''). Key tenets of Gierke's work were adopted and brought into English jurisprudence by
Frederick W. Maitland. In France,
Léon Duguit developed the concept of social law in his 1911 book, ''Le droit social, le droit individuel et la transformation de l’état''. A common thread has been an attachment to
social justice
Social justice is justice in relation to the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society where individuals' rights are recognized and protected. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has of ...
in a democratic society.
Louis Brandeis
Louis Dembitz Brandeis ( ; November 13, 1856 – October 5, 1941) was an American lawyer who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to ...
, ‘The Living Law’ (1916) 10(7) Illinois Law Review 461 This became central to the thinking of American legal realists during the ''
Lochner era'' of the early 20th century.
See also
*
Justice
In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...
*
Court
A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between Party (law), parties and Administration of justice, administer justice in Civil law (common law), civil, Criminal law, criminal, an ...
*
International law
International law, also known as public international law and the law of nations, is the set of Rule of law, rules, norms, Customary law, legal customs and standards that State (polity), states and other actors feel an obligation to, and generall ...
*
Legal philosophy
Jurisprudence, also known as theory of law or philosophy of law, is the examination in a general perspective of what law is and what it ought to be. It investigates issues such as the definition of law; legal validity; legal norms and values ...
*
Sociology of law
The sociology of law, legal sociology, or law and society, is often described as a sub-discipline of sociology or an interdisciplinary approach within legal studies. Some see sociology of law as belonging "necessarily" to the field of sociolo ...
*
Private law
Private law is that part of a legal system that governs interactions between individual persons. It is distinguished from public law, which deals with relationships between both natural and artificial persons (i.e., organizations) and the st ...
and
public law
Public law is the part of law that governs relations and affairs between legal persons and a government, between different institutions within a state, between different branches of governments, as well as relationships between persons that ...
*
Law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...
*
Natural law
Natural law (, ) is a Philosophy, philosophical and legal theory that posits the existence of a set of inherent laws derived from nature and universal moral principles, which are discoverable through reason. In ethics, natural law theory asserts ...
Notes
References
*
Otto von Gierke
Otto Friedrich von Gierke, born Otto Friedrich Gierke (11 January 1841 – 10 October 1921), was a German legal scholar and historian. He is considered today as one of the most influential and important legal scholars of the 19th and 20th centur ...
,
The Social Role of Private Law' (2016) translated and introduced by E McGaughey, originally ''
Die soziale Aufgabe des Privatrechts''
Berlin 1889
*
Léon Duguit, ''Le droit social, le droit individuel et la transformation de l’état'' (1911)
*
Max Weber
Maximilian Carl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German Sociology, sociologist, historian, jurist, and political economy, political economist who was one of the central figures in the development of sociology and the social sc ...
, ''
Economy and Society
''Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology'' (1921; ; or simply ''Economy and Society'') is a book by political economist and sociologist Max Weber, published posthumously in Germany by his wife Marianne. Alongside ''The Prot ...
'' (1922) translation edited by G Roth and C Wittich (1978) vol II, ch IX, viii, 886
*
Hugo Sinzheimer
Hugo Sinzheimer (; 12 April 1875 – 16 September 1945) was a German legal scholar and contributed to the writing of the Weimar Constitution. He was a leading proponent of the concept of social law.
Biography
Sinzheimer was one of the first acad ...
, 'Chronik von Juni 1929' in T Ramm, ''Die Justiz. Einer Chronik'' (1968) 180
*G Gurvitch, 'The Problem of Social Law' (1941
52(1) Ethics 17*
Gunther Teubner, ''Juridification of Social Spheres: A Comparative Analysis in the Areas of Labor, Corporate, Antitrust and Social Welfare Law'' (1987)
*G Gurvitch, L’idee du droit social (1932), G Radbruch, Der Mensch im Recht (1957)
*D Grimm, Solidarität als Rechtsprinzip (1973)
*A Seifert, ‘Von der Person zum Menschen im Recht - zum Begriff des sozialen Rechts bei
Hugo Sinzheimer
Hugo Sinzheimer (; 12 April 1875 – 16 September 1945) was a German legal scholar and contributed to the writing of the Weimar Constitution. He was a leading proponent of the concept of social law.
Biography
Sinzheimer was one of the first acad ...
’ (2011) 1(2) Soziales Recht 62
*E Eichenhofer, ‘Soziales Recht - Bemerkungen zur Begriffsgeschichte’ (2012) 2(2) Soziales Recht 76
*Ruth Dukes, ''The Labour Constitution: The Enduring Idea of Labour Law'' (2014) 15-16
External links
*{{Commonscatinline, Social law
Website for the German ''Soziales Recht'' Journal and o
Jstor