Law in a Changing Society is a classic work on contemporary thought. Professor
Friedmann writes of the law's great themes—its complex interaction with social change, its intervention into economics and the environment, its balance of public power and private rights, its place in the growth of international order, its own changing role in the interdependent society—with insight, imagination and an exciting breadth of scholarship. For this second edition, the author has largely rewritten his text and added two new chapters: chapter 8, which examines the alternatives of economic competition, public regulation and public enterprise; and a concluding chapter, which examines the changing role of law in the society of the seventies. He sums up in his Preface the developments to which he has responded: "In some areas, such as family law, the last decade has brought fundamental changes in many countries, with respect to divorce, abortion, the status of illegitimate children, matrimonial property, and other matters. The very function and ambit of criminal law and criminal sanction has been put in question by recent developments in social psychology and genetic engineering. The substitution of insurance for tort liability, particularly in the field of motorcar accidents, has become a problem of increasing urgency. The growth of mechanisation, and the centralisation of power, both at the Government and the corporate level, has made a re-examination of the relation between public power and the individual a matter of urgent necessity. The role of international law and organisation in international society has more and more become a question on which the ordered survival of mankind will depend. And any student of the relation of law and society must reflect on the changing function of law in the increasingly interdependent society of the 1970s, as one of a number of interacting components in a complex web of systems analysis, social planning and decision-making." The book is divided into six Parts : Instruments of Legal Change; Social Change and Legal Institutions; Economic Power, the State and the Law; The Growing Role of Public Law; The Changing Scope of International Law; The Function of Law in Contemporary Society. ............................................................................................................................ Contents Part one - Instruments of Legal Change 1. The Interactions of Legal and Social Change Savigny and Bentham Ehrlich The Interplay of State Action and Public Opinion Constitutional Patterns and Legal Change State Powers and the Control of Personal Liberties and Economic Rights The Various Patterns of Democracy and Legal Change Revolution, Civil Disobedience and Legal Change Conclusions 2. The Courts and the Evolution of the Law Precedent and Social Change in the Common Law Statutory Interpretation and the Conflict of Values Social Change and the Interpretation of Constitutions Judicial Law-Making and the Criminal Law Judicial Law-Making in International Law Part Two - Social Change and Legal Institutions 3. Changing Concepts of Property The Key Position of Property in Modern Industrial Society Different Concepts of Property Property Law and the Evolution of Industrial Society Public Restraints on the Rights of Property Curbing the Power of Property Decline and Rebirth of the Right of Property 4. The Changing Function of Contract The Corner-Stones of Contract in the 'Classical' Era The Main Social Causes of the Transformation of Contract Contract and the Realization of Economic Expectations Conclusions 5. Tort, Insurance and Social Responsibility Judicial Widening of Tort Responsibility The Shift of Liability from Tort to Insurance Industrial Accident Insurance Automobile Accidents - Tort and Insurance Some Reform Proposals - A Survey Some Comparative Approaches Tort and Insurance - Alternative Remedies and the Problem of Double Compensation Some Conclusions 6. Criminal Law in a Changing World Fundamentalist and Utilitarian Approaches to the Function of Criminal Law Social Values and the Ambit of Criminal Law Economic Crimes against the Community Environmental Pollution and the Criminal Law Sexual Permissiveness and the Criminal Law Criminal Law in the Welfare State - Mens Rea and the Public Welfare Offence The Corporation and Criminal Liability Modern Science and the Responsibility of the Individual Modern Psychology, Control over Behaviour and the Criminal Law Genetic Engineering and the Responsibility of the Individual Changing Purposes of Punishment Alternatives to the Criminal Sanction What Future for Criminal Law? 7. Family Law Basic Concepts of the Western Family The indissolubility of the Marriage Tie Changing Foundations for the Cohesion of the Family Procreation of Life as the Supreme Goal of Marriage Legitimacy of Abortion Equality of Husband and Wife in the Marriage Community Matrimonial Property Law Parents and Children The State and the Family Part Three - Economic Power, the State and the Law 8. Economic Competition, Regulation and the Public Interest: The Dilemmas of Anti-Trust Limits of the Ideology of Competition Basic Concepts and Goals of Anti-Trust Rule of Reason and Public Interest Mergers Illegality per se Conspiracy and Parallelism Competition and Cooperation: The Dilemma of Anti-Trust The Place of Public Enterprise 9. Corporate Power, the Individual and the State Legal Cloaks of Corporate Power The Foundation - Social and Legal Impacts The Social Impact of Institutionalized Giving Corporate Power and the State Recent Analyses of the Function of the Large Corporation The Quasi-Public Power of the Large Corporation and the Problem of Legal Control The Role of Organized Labour Legal Remedies for Abuses of Group Power: Total Socialization Public and Private Enterprise in a Mixed Economy Types of State Enterprise Partnership of Capital and Labour Public Regulation of Economic Activities Group Power and the Individual Legal Controls of Labour Unions Legislative Protection of 'Union Democracy' Public Authority, Private Power and the Individual - Some Conclusions Part Four - The Growing Role of Public Law 10. The Growth of Administration and the Evolution of Public Law The Growth of the Administrative Function The Need for a System of Public Law Separation of Powers and Administrative Law The Limits of Administrative Discretion 11. Government Liability, Administrative Discretion and the Individual Some Lessons from the Continent 12. The Problem of Administrative Remedies and Procedures French and German Approaches Remedies in the Common-Law Systems Injunction and Declaratory Judgement as Administrative Remedies Community Interests as' Grievances Administrative Justice: Some Comparative Observations Public Power and the Individual: Some New Approaches The Ombudsman Part Five - The Changing Scope of International Law 13. National Sovereignty and World Order in the Nuclear Age National Sovereignty and the United Nations Expanding National Claims to the Sea Regional Groupings and the Universal International Law The Development of International Law on Three Levels 14. The Broadening Scope of International Law New Dimensions of lnternational Law New Subjects of International Law International Economic Development Law and the Role of Private Corporations The Legal Character of lnternational State Transactions The Impact of State Trading on International Legal Obligations Government Immunities in International Transactions International Minimum Standards of Justice Part Six - The Function of Law in Contemporary Society 15. The Rule of Law, the Individual and the Welfare State Group and Individual 16. The Changing Role of Law in the Interdependent Society The Changing Role of the Lawyer The Role of the State in the Overcrowded Society Conclusions References Table of Cases Table of Statutes Select Bibliography Index ............................................................................................................................ Author Details W. Friedmann, LL.D. (London), Dr. Jur. (Berlin), LL.M. (Melbourne), Of the Middle Temple, Barrist.er-at-Law, Professor of International Law and Director of International Legal Research, Columbia University.