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4 Int'l J. L. Context 1 (2008)

handle is hein.journals/injwcext4 and id is 1 raw text is: International Journal of Law in Context, 4J PP. 1-33 (2008) Cambridge University Press rOI: I0-G018/S174455230 -80 Printed in the United Kingdom A legal field in action: the case of divorce arrangements in Israel Daphna Hacker* Lecturer at the Buchman Law Faculty and the NCJW Women and Gender Studies Program, Tel Aviv University Abstract This paper suggests a theoretical and methodological framework that integrates Bourdieu's conception of the juridicalfield with Mnookin and Kornhauser's claim of the centrality of the action occurring in the shadow of the law. This framework is constructed based on a study of the Israeli legal field governing divorce that included the analysis of 360 divorce files and in-depth interviews with more than 40 divorcees and legal and therapeutic professionals. The study allows a rare exploration of a legalfield in action, including the main positions within the field and the power relations between them, as well as the field's boundaries and game rules. The findings illustrate the importance ofBourdieu's fields theory ifand when opened up to the informal dimensions oflaw and demonstrate the potential of the suggested framework to the sociological understanding of law in action. Introduction Two decades have passed since Pierre Bourdieu (1987) applied his notion of social fields to law. Since then, the theoretical and methodological implications of conceiving law as a social field have received scant attention (Garcfa Villegas 2006, p. 58). The few who relate to Bourdieu's notion of 'juridical field' either dismiss it as too static to be useful to the understanding of the complexity and dynamism of law (Valverde, 2006), or use it uncritically in their studies. Interestingly, these studies are mainly grand-scale investigations mapping the historical development of a whole national or transnational juridical field (for example, Dezalay and Garth, 1996; TomlinS 2004; Cohen 2007). This paper seeks to join those who find the theoretical conceptualisation of law as a social field useful, but to do so critically, while focusing on the present ongoing activities taking place in a particular doctrinal legal field. Through a thick description of a segment of the Israeli legal field governing divorce, I demonstrate the potential of Bourdieu's field theory for the sociological understanding of law in action, if the theory is expanded to include also the informal dimensions of law. Bourdieu's application of his social fields conception to law was limited to a discussion of the latter's adversarial dimensions. His brief description of the judge as 'a third-person mediator' stands in stark contrast to his definition of the 'juridical field' as 'a social space organized around the conversion of direct conflict between directly concerned parties into juridically regulated debate between profes- sionals acting by proxy' (Bourdieu, 1987, p. 831). In line with this definition, he proceeded to focus on * I thank Ronen Shamir and Haya Stier for their guidance and The Colton Fund, The Israel Foundations Trustee, The Chutick Scholarship, The Lord and Lady Sieff Doctoral Fellowship, The William P. and R. Lowenstein Doctoral Fellowship, The Cegla Center, and Tel Aviv University for their support. I am also grateful to Menachem Mautner, Hanoch Dagan, Shai Lavi, Dan Gibton, Daphne Barak-Erez, Hadar Aviram, Avi Cordova, Moussa Abou Ramadan, Motti Regev, Michal Frenkel, and the members of the Tel Aviv Faculty of Law Seminar, The Haifa University Law Faculty Seminar, the Bar Ilan Faculty of Law Seminar and the American Bar Foundation Seminar for their useful comments on earlier drafts. I also thank Dana Meshulam for her editorial contribution.

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