Sibley, Susan S. "Law and Society Movement" in Legal Systems of the World: A Political, Social, and Cultural Encyclopedia. Edited by Herbert Kritzer. Santa Barbara: ABC CLIO
The articles above are essentially the same thing just from different perspectives. Both are advocates of the Law and Society movement but Sibley is more confident in its present state where Friedman really feels that though the intentions are good a whole new approach is needed if one is even possible.
It seems to be understood that Law and Society is the study of how the legal system actually operates, explaining the law within the social context that it is operating in.
Friedman says that it uses the scientific method and applies to something thoroughly nonscientific. I think that the same could be said about the whole of sociology if one wanted to take such a staunch and traditional approach to academia. I do agree that it is difficult to create grand narratives in the theory of law and society but attempting it can do nothing but give us reasons as to why it is difficult as well as an understanding of just how disjointed law is all over the world and how it is connected.
Sibley asserts that "law and society has succeeded in painting a picture of law as a social system" (862).
It seems a logical conclusion of both articles that law and society is pretty cool, not so well respected in the legal field, under funded, crucial to the decentering of law as the only means of control in societies, needs to be more inclusive of economic theory, and unfortunately no matter what will be the red headed step child of legal scholarship.
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