Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Introduction
- PART I OVERVIEWS AND ASSESSMENTS OF FRIEDMAN'S WORK
- PART II APPLICATIONS OF CONCEPTS, INSIGHTS, AND METHODS IN FRIEDMAN'S WORK
- Legal Culture
- Total Justice
- 7 The Travails of Total Justice
- 8 “Total Justice” and Political Conservatism
- 9 Failures of War Tribunals
- PART III THE LEGAL PROFESSION
- PART IV LAW AND LARGE AREAS OF SOCIAL LIFE
- PART V FACTS FROM THE UNDERGROUND: DIGGING LEGAL HISTORY OUT OF THE CELLAR
- PART VI PERSPECTIVES FROM OTHER CONCEPTUAL WORLDS
- Index
- Titles in the series
- References
7 - The Travails of Total Justice
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 October 2011
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Introduction
- PART I OVERVIEWS AND ASSESSMENTS OF FRIEDMAN'S WORK
- PART II APPLICATIONS OF CONCEPTS, INSIGHTS, AND METHODS IN FRIEDMAN'S WORK
- Legal Culture
- Total Justice
- 7 The Travails of Total Justice
- 8 “Total Justice” and Political Conservatism
- 9 Failures of War Tribunals
- PART III THE LEGAL PROFESSION
- PART IV LAW AND LARGE AREAS OF SOCIAL LIFE
- PART V FACTS FROM THE UNDERGROUND: DIGGING LEGAL HISTORY OUT OF THE CELLAR
- PART VI PERSPECTIVES FROM OTHER CONCEPTUAL WORLDS
- Index
- Titles in the series
- References
Summary
THE TOTAL JUSTICE EXPLOSION
Among his many gifts, Lawrence Friedman is blessed with a wonderful capacity to detect what he has occasionally called “master trends” in the workings of law and society, discerning the common direction and subterranean connection among diverse phenomena. His observations on “total justice” qualify as a prime example. In his much cited book of that name, published in 1985, he characterizes the advance of remedy and protection for many of life's injuries and troubles and the corresponding elevation of expectations as a master and unidirectional trend in American law and legal culture. The enlargement of justice that he describes includes two components: a general expectation of justice in the sense of fair treatment and recompense for injury and loss.
Total justice is a “super-principle” that has gathered momentum over the past century. Its arrival reflected a sea change in legal culture, that itself reflects profound changes in the organization of society. These changes in society derive from the burgeoning of science and technology that have “made the world over” and increased the social capacity for control and intervention. So this is an Enlightenment story – harsh legal rules give way to a more nurturant sort of law as legal culture changes to reflect humankind's increasing science-based mastery over the troubles and risks of everyday life.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Law, Society, and HistoryThemes in the Legal Sociology and Legal History of Lawrence M. Friedman, pp. 103 - 117Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011
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