The Force of Law: Toward a Sociology of the Juridical Field
![handle is hein.journals/hastlj38 and id is 825 raw text is: The Force of Law: Toward a Sociology of
the Juridical Field
by
PIERRE BOURDIEU
Translator's Introduction
by
RICHARD TERDIMAN*
Pierre Bourdieu holds the Chair in Sociology at the prestigious Col-
lge de France, Paris. He is Directeur d'Etudes at l'Ecole des Hautes
Etudes en Sciences Sociales, where he is also Director of the Center for
European Sociology, and Editor of the influential journal Actes de la
reqherche en sciences soqiales. Professor Bourdieu is the author or co-
author of approximately twenty books. A number of these have been
published in English translation: The Algerians, 1962; Reproduction in
Education, Society and Culture (with Jean-Claude Passeron), 1977; Out-
line of a Theory of Practice, 1977; Algeria 1960, 1979; The Inheritors:
French Students and their Relations to Culture, 1979; Distinction: A So-
cial Critique of the Judgment of Taste, 1984.
The essay below analyzes what Bourdieu terms the juridical field.
In Bourdieu's conception, a field is an area of structured, socially pat-
terned activity or practice, in this case disciplinarily and professionally
defined.1 The field and its practices have special senses in
* Professor of Literature, University of California, Santa Cruz. B.A. 1963, Amherst
College; Ph.D. 1968, Yale University.
I am grateful to John Henry Merryman, Sweitzer Professor of Law, Stanford Law School,
for his generous assistance with terminological and conceptual issues which arose in connec-
tion with this translation.
1. Bourdieu's work has provided a series of analyses of different social fields. See, for
example: HoMo ACADEMICUS, 1984 (on the academic field); Champ du pouvoir, champ intel-
lectuel, et habitus de classe, I SCOLIE 7 (1971) (on the intellectual field); Genise et structure du
champ religieux, 12 REVUE FRANgAISE DE SOCIOLOGIE (1971) (on the religious field); Le
Marchddes biens symboliques, 22 ANNEE SOCIOLOGIQUE 49 (1973) (on the market in symbolic
goods); L'Invention de la vie d'artiste, ACTES DE LA RECHERCHE EN SCIENCES SOgIALES 67
(1975) (on the intersection of literature and power); L'Ontologiepolitique de Martin Heidegger,
5-6 AcrEs DE LA RECHERCHE EN SCIENCES SOgIALES 109 (1975) (on the intersection of
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The Force of Law: Toward a Sociology of the Juridical Field
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