[Book Reviews]

Abstract

WHAT comes out clearly in Mr. Cairns's study of the relations of jurisprudence to anthropology, psychology, political theory, economics and sociology is that law, regarded more especially as the judicial process, has become increasingly sociologically minded, and that if it is to achieve full power in ordering human society, “it must join with the other social sciences in a united effort to solve the problems common to all”. These are not novel conclusions, and yet the task the author set himself was well worth doing. For it is often forgotten that only as late as the sixteenth century did jurisprudence escape from theology, philosophy and ethics, and became a separate discipline. This emancipation was undoubtedly necessary at the time. But once achieved, it became even more necessary, with the growing complexity and interconnectedness of society, to bring law back into the totality of social life. Society is one, and each of the social sciences, including law, studies and attempts to manipulate but one aspect of it. They cannot therefore remain isolated from each other if they are to be useful instruments for theoretical understanding and practical manipulation.

Law and the Social Sciences

By Huntington Cairns. (International Library of Psychology, Philosophy and Scientific Method.) Pp. xiv + 279. (London: Kegan Paul and Co., Ltd.; New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1935.) 12s. 6d. net.