Between psychology and sociology

the continuators of psychological legal theory

Julia Stanek

pp. 159-176

in: Bartosz Broek, Julia Stanek, Jerzy Stelmach (eds), Russian legal realism, Berlin, Springer, 2018

Abstract

The psychological theory of law proposed by Leon Petrażycki has become an inspiration for a number of Russian legal scholars—including his students who vigorously advocated his ideas. This chapter aims at analyzing two main directions in the development of Petrażycki's theory: the psychological and the sociological. As for the former, the ideas of such authors as M. Laserson and A. Kruglevsky are presented while for the latter, the works of P. Sorokin and N. Timasheff are discussed. Moreover, the author demonstrates that, despite some differences pertaining to the prevalence of a sociological or psychological perspective, the ideas of each of the discussed authors can be regarded as a unified approach to law, namely Russian legal realism.

Cited authors

Petrażycki Leon