Abstract
Within the last two decades increasing attention, both public and academic, has been directed towards the relationship between law and social change in Canadian society. A body of literature has emerged, including texts, articles and a journal, which focus upon relationships between law and society, institutionalized law reform commissions, and socio-legal centres. Theoretically the work has gone from an early focus upon consensus, order related assumptions to more recent critical studies in political economy. In order to appreciate the complex and contradictory nature of law and social institutions, a dialectical approach seems appropriate. This allows one to incorporate relevant research and insights from other theoretical perspectives, while providing a comprehensive, structural sense of legal activity and change within a social context. Of particular significance is the appreciation of human action and struggle, praxis, within changing structural and historical conditions.
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Reasons, C. Law, state and economy: A Canadian overview. The Journal of Human Justice 1, 9–26 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02619371
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02619371