Law shapes society while remaining society’s creation

Evidence

This bridge can serve as a metaphor for law and the legal system. Social forces in the larger society create it, shape it, twist it and turn it, pull it and push it. But what these forces produce becomes a part of social life; once in place, the system works its own influ­ ence on society, on how we live, how we think, how we feel. This independent effect of the legal system does not mean that there is something wrong with the theory that shifts the burden of causation from “law” to “society.” The legal system is not independent of society. It is not a system all to itself, insulated from the life of society. The legal system does not march to its own separate drummer. It is a part of the social order, a soldier in the army of society. But its sheer size and presence, its importance, its scale, its interac­ tions with the rest of the social organism give it an impact and a meaning beyond that of some limp marionette. Law is society’s servant, to be sure. But it is not a quiet, invisible servant in an old-​fashioned household; it is the noisy, bumptious workforce of a modern factory. — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law, 1333

Categorization

• XREF: The bridge metaphor echoes the trees-as-infrastructure article’s framing of built structures taking on independent life. — connects to: Hidden legal structures quietly lock in existing social and economic conditions — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 1340; The social forces pushing a statute explain its draftsmanship and form — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 482; Laws are symptoms of social morality, not its cause — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 823 (+8 more)
• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source

Broader Connections

• Law is coextensive with society and mirrors its aims and contradictions #expands (0.92) — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 4405
• Law functions to reconstruct society, not merely reflect it #qualifies (0.85)
• The common law adapts to social and economic change #exemplifies (0.82) — Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide to Clear…, 1311
• States use law to shape a specific type of citizen and civilization #exemplifies (0.80) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 924
• Legal history is inseparable from the full history of society #corroborates (0.78) — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 4409
• Bourgeois law and state aim to absorb the whole of society into itself #expands (0.75)