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11 J. Conflict Resol. 1 (1967)

handle is hein.journals/jcfltr11 and id is 1 raw text is: Law and conflict resolution: an introduction DAVID J. DANELSKI Department of Political Science, Yale University Since the resolution of conflict is a prin- cipal function of law, it was inevitable that this journal would eventually devote a spe- cial issue to law and conflict resolution. Consistent with its policy of publishing arti- cles using concepts, data, and methods from all the social and behavioral sciences, the present issue represents the perspectives of several disciplines, especially anthropology, sociology, and political science. One of the contributors (Pospisil) is an anthropologist, two (Aubert and Skolnick) are sociologists, two (Lasswell and Danelski) are political scientists, and one (Arens) is a lawyer. Pospisil, Aubert, and Danelski were trained in law prior to their work in the social and behavioral sciences. Lasswell has been a member of a law faculty for more than two decades. And Aubert and Skolnick are con- nected with special institutes for research concerning law and society. Diversity characterizes the issue; never- theless, its contributors share a common commitment to empirical science and a conception of law in which human behavior is a central component. For Pospisil, a Kapauku headman's decision that sibmates who are third cousins may marry is, to use Llewellyn's term, significant law stuff. So are perspectives, sign-symbol patterns, and other behaviors for Lasswell and Arens; so, for Aubert and Skolnick, are negotiations between prosecutors and defense lawyers concerning guilty pleas; and so, for Danel- ski, are interactions indicating conflict and its resolution among Supreme Court justices. Each is concerned with law in action and not with law as it is conventionally under- stood in terms of statements in statutes and case reports. The notion of law in action is, of course, not new. It goes back at least to the begin- ning of the present century and was articu- lated by Ehrlich, Pound, and Holmes, among others. But little systematic theory flowed from their insights. Although the behav- ioral revolution in the social sciences after World War II contributed to theoretical sensitivity on the part of some legal schol- ars, a thoroughgoing behavioral jurispru- dence is yet to be developed. As the articles in this issue indicate, however, there is an increasingly empirical orientation in this area of scholarship and movement in the direction of operational definition, testing of hypotheses, and use of models, all of which indicates that the behavioral revolution is finally having an impact on the study of legal phenomena. It may not be amiss to suggest that behavioral work in law is reach- ing a takeoff point. If that is so, it will not only make for a scientific understanding of the legal world but also contribute to a sys- tematic body of knowledge concerning con- flict and its resolution at every level of so- cial organization.

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