At today’s stage of society development, there is an increasing understanding of the need for embarking upon the study of the sociological nature of law and its role in ensuring the necessary social results.

This article aims at highlighting the essence of the concept of legal system from the perspective of sociological understanding of law.

The article examines the concept of legal system through the lens of sociological understanding of law in the context of historical and legal discourse which evinces the development of sociology of law over the past 100 years, as well as the evolution of sociological understanding of the essence of legal system and the latter’s relationship with other social subsystems, its structure and functions. The article presents an analysis of views of the scholars representing the most famous schools of sociology of law. In particular, as far as European scholars are concerned, special focus is given to representatives of German (M. Weber and E. Ehrlich) and French (E. Durkheim, L. Duguit) sociology of law schools. The article points to the link between legal system development and changes in the paradigm of development of public relations, which was emphasized by representatives of both schools. Among other interesting ideas, the author notes the opinion about a slimmed-down role of the State as a regulator of public relations, which is related to the development of private law and civil society; this opinion was in his time proposed by L. Duguit. Based upon an analysis of the works by representatives of the American school of sociology of law (B. Cardozo, R. Pound, K. Llewellyn), the author brings into focus the relationship between legal system and the procedures for administration of justice and the judicial system as such, which is a mechanism of two-way communication between law and other social subsystems; this mechanism, for its part, ensures that legal system development is consistent with rapid changes in the (post)industrial society.

 The main conclusion of the article is the thesis that when analyzing law as major regulatory system of social relations, law sociology theorists highlight the diverse and multifaceted connections of legal system to other social phenomena. And the understanding of legal system as a system of legal communications emphasizes the need for gaining insight into the issues stemming from the special status of institutions and the grounds empowering these institutions to create an appropriate communication system.

Bibliography

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