Law is coextensive with society and mirrors its aims and contradictions

Evidence

The legal system is coextensive with society. It reflects the wants, wishes, hopes, and demands of society, in all their irrationality, ambiguity, and inconsistency. It follows every twist and turn of their development. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 4405

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Laws are symptoms of social morality, not its cause — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 823; Law shapes society while remaining society’s creation — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 1333; Legal history is inseparable from the full history of society — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 4409 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Law functions to reconstruct society, not merely reflect it #responds-to (0.75)
• Bourgeois law and state aim to absorb the whole of society into itself #expands (0.72)