Socio-Legal Research, Teaching, and Service for the 21st Century

Mark Fathi Massoud

Assistant Professor of Politics and Legal Studies
University of California, Santa Cruz
mmassoud@ucsc.edu

Law and Society Association

2nd Half Century Junior Scholars Essay Award
May 2014

Abstract

This essay proposes a set of ideas and innovations for the Law and Society Association and
its members in the three key areas that make up our scholarly profession: research, teaching,
and service. The next half century will entail maintaining the commitment of the LSA’s
founders who envisioned socio-legal studies and the LSA itself as both an area of
interdisciplinary inquiry and a movement for justice.
 Mark Fathi Massoud
LSA 2nd Half Century Junior Scholars Essay Award

Socio-Legal Research, Teaching, and Service for the 21st Century

Laying in an old hospital bed in Somalia last summer battling a major illness, I wondered
what took me to this place and what I actually could contribute to socio-legal studies by
doing fieldwork in a collapsed nation in a remote corner of Africa. I reminded myself that, as
a young law and society scholar, my goal was to seek out knowledge about the role of law in
society even in places where we think law does not exist – even in Somalia, that is.

My research is hardly unique. It forms part of a growing quest by junior socio-legal scholars
to build on the first 50 years of law and society scholarship by understanding the depths of
law’s power for people and for their governments even in the most surprising or unexpected
settings (see, for example, Erie 2014; Kawar 2014; Stern 2013; Kapisweski 2013; Chua 2012;
Huneeus 2010).

The future of socio-legal studies will involve continuing to build bridges that connect law
with politics, society, history, and human behavior (and vice-versa). Constructing these
bridges to take us into the next half century will entail maintaining the commitment of the
founders of the Law and Society Association (LSA) who fifty years ago saw socio-legal
studies and the LSA itself as both an area of interdisciplinary inquiry and a movement for
justice. This essay proposes a set of ideas and innovations for the LSA and its members in
the three key areas that make up our scholarly profession: research, teaching, and service.

Advancing Interdisciplinary Research

Think broadly about “legal politics.” Illuminating legal politics involves studying the ways
that law is used to achieve economic, social, or political goals (Massoud 2013). Building on
the interdisciplinary LSA canon over the last fifty years, the next fifty years will involve
continuing to ask and answer a range of questions about the diverse areas where the power
of law reveals itself – not only within courts and in the relationships among judges, lawyers,
and other elite or governmental actors, but also wholly outside of courts and the legal
profession: in organizations and movements and how they mediate law’s meaning for
employees or activists, in schools and other educational settings, or simply in people’s lived
experiences of law. Linking law with religion, gender, race, and other axes of identity or
subordination may become an increasingly important part of this broad range of socio-legal
scholarship. (One of the LSA’s newest Collaborative Research Networks, on Islamic Law
and Society, offers a promising example in this regard.)

Practically, studying legal politics means being open to producing and publishing empirically
and theoretically grounded research that illuminates interesting or unexpected puzzles. It
may also mean studying the improbable and the innovative. Significant recent examples
come from new scholars like Stern (2013) who describes the role of environmental litigation
in China; Moustafa (2007) who explains why an authoritarian regime in Egypt would
empower judges; Chua (2012) who details the complex ways gay rights groups negotiate the
law in Singapore; and Belge (2008) who shows how national identity in Israel and Turkey
shapes how state leaders use law to control minority populations. The list goes on. These
scholars and a line of graduate students behind them are pushing the boundaries of decades
of law and society research.

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 Mark Fathi Massoud
LSA 2nd Half Century Junior Scholars Essay Award

Engage deep and out. In its first 50 years, law and society grew deep, with the most visible
scholarship tending to come from English-speaking academics studying disputing in the
United States. Law and society is growing outward beyond the U.S. at a rapid pace, however.
Facilitating this trend involves bringing together scholars whose experiences or research in
non-U.S. settings illuminate the diverse roles of law in society.

Practically, comparative research – across time, setting, or national context – and conference
panels and roundtables that view the U.S. as a comparative case will facilitate cross-national
networks and collaborations. In addition, thinking deep and out may also involve increasing
the number of major journals in socio-legal studies. Law & Society Review and Law & Social
Inquiry currently constitute the most widely known journals in our field. Other significant
outlets are the Journal of Law and Courts, the Canadian Journal of Law and Society, and the
International Journal of Law in Context, all of which look for outstanding and interdisciplinary
law-and-society scholarship off the beaten path.

Keep policy in mind. In the next half century, increasing numbers of socio-legal scholars –
and not just the established or aspiring law professors among us – will be thinking about the
impacts of our research both for academic colleagues and for policymakers. Think tank
experts, consultants, aid agency staff, judges, lawyers, and government officials are
increasingly reading and engaging with our work, and many are also members of the LSA.
While LSA is not the space to examine changes in legal doctrine alone, it is an intellectual
environment and a movement that collectively promotes deep thinking related to the politics
of law and the impacts of law and legal engagement on society.

Practically, keeping policy in mind involves recalling our foundation as a movement but also
participating further in ongoing conversations using social media, commentary, and blogs. A
companion blog to Law & Society Review or an occasional journal section showcasing Op-Ed-
style socio-legal commentary, for instance, would continue to expand readership to policy
audiences and provide timely reports related to published or forthcoming articles.
(Cambridge University Press’s blog, fifteeneightyfour, offers one such promising example.)

Teaching One Another and Our Students

Under each past president, the Law and Society Association has focused on creating a
welcoming and supportive environment for graduate students and other junior scholars. The
graduate student workshop and early career workshop, both of which I attended, introduce
participants to new colleagues and to senior scholars in the field. These two events shaped
my thinking about a range of issues from theoretical concerns related to legal mobilization to
practical concerns related to publishing in an interdisciplinary field. LSA’s unwavering
commitment to junior scholars is one of the main reasons I remain committed to this
association and talk of it admiringly to colleagues as “innovative and fun.” This commitment
to future generations is also why I later served as a speaker during a graduate student
workshop session on publishing, and why I chose to write this essay. But there remains more
to be done for the next half century, building on the successes of our Association’s leaders
since 1964.

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 Mark Fathi Massoud
LSA 2nd Half Century Junior Scholars Essay Award

Practically, keeping junior colleagues involved in law and society will take many directions.
New training initiatives, for instance, for those who teach law and society courses in law
schools and in disciplinary departments would encourage LSA members to link research and
teaching more clearly. Mentoring programs that pair graduate students with junior faculty,
and junior faculty with senior colleagues (where they meet together once a year informally at
LSA or even just for a phone call) may also help younger colleagues to develop new law and
society courses and their mentors to revise or “internationalize” their existing courses.

In this regard, a repository of sample course syllabi would help new instructors think about
the range of possible courses in socio-legal studies, not just introductory courses for
undergraduates or law students. Looking further ahead, a law and society teaching and
learning workshop, built on the model of the American Political Science Association’s
Teaching and Learning Conference, would be a space for socio-legal scholars to discuss new
technologies, models, and methods for effective teaching.

Serving Our Profession and Communities

Because of the LSA’s commitment to research, teaching, and policy related to socio-legal
studies, the Association is poised to make its most substantial contribution to its members
and to the communities in which we live and conduct our research.

Practically, issuing a mission statement of the LSA’s major goals for the next decade (much
like the United Nations Millennium Development Goals) would assist the LSA to showcase
its priorities transparently. While smaller than many disciplinary associations, LSA can
continue to stand in solidarity with other academic organizations and honor societies on
relevant issues affecting the academy, including Congressional funding cuts to the National
Science Foundation. In addition, increasing the proportion of conference registration fees to
fund travel grants for junior scholars – particularly those from the global South – who
evidence serious commitments to socio-legal studies would also help to attract those who
otherwise could not afford to attend LSA meetings.

Finally, serving our professional community by growing the pre-conference workshops and
regional retreats and events would be important markers of LSA’s success over the next half
century. For instance, sponsoring an annual LSA junior scholar writing workshop (perhaps
held at a different co-sponsoring institution each year) would bring together a small group of
junior scholars to receive feedback on their works in progress from senior scholars. (One
successful example is the Law and Humanities Junior Scholar Workshop, now in its tenth
year.)

Looking Ahead to 2064

By 2064, those who read this essay (including its author) will be retired or otherwise no
longer active in the field. Personally, I hope I will have left my mark on future generations of
law and society scholars and students through my commitment to research on innovative
questions, interdisciplinary teaching and a responsibility to help empower junior colleagues,
and service to the profession and the communities in which we live. My hope is also one that

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 Mark Fathi Massoud
LSA 2nd Half Century Junior Scholars Essay Award

maintains LSA’s mission as a professional association and as a movement, including by

reinforcing linkages with other scholarly movements such as critical race theory and LatCrit.

Following my hospital stay and recovery in Somalia last summer, I attended a meeting with a
well-known young Somali lawyer. Speaking about how he came to be a prominent advocate
for justice in an environment riven by civil war, he said to me, “Knowledge has no identity.
It is important to learn from everyone.” These sentiments were key not only to his success in
such a challenging situation but also to LSA’s successes since 1964. And they will continue
to shape our association’s legacy through 2064 as we forge new paths and use new
technologies to understand social justice and the complex, embedded role of law in society.

Bibliography

Belge, Ceren. 2008. Whose Law?: Clans, Honor Killings, and State-Minority Relations in Turkey and
Israel. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Washington Department of Political Science.
Chua, Lynette. 2012. Pragmatic Resistance, Law, and Social Movements in Authoritarian
States: The Case of Gay Collective Action in Singapore. Law & Society Review 46 (4):
713-748.
Erie, Matthew. 2014 (forthcoming). China, Islam, and Shari’a: A Pilgrimage to China’s Little
Mecca. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (forthcoming, 2014).
Huneeus, Alexandra. 2010. Judging from a Guilty Conscience: The Chilean Judiciary’s
Human Rights Turn. Law & Social Inquiry 35:99–135.
Kapiswewski, Diana. 2013. High Courts and Economic Governance in Argentina and Brazil.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kawar, Leila. 2014 (forthcoming). Commanding Legality: The Juridification of Immigration
Policymaking in France. Journal of Law and Courts, Vol. 2 (forthcoming, 2014).
Massoud, Mark Fathi. 2013. Law’s Fragile State: Colonial, Authoritarian, and Humanitarian
Legacies in Sudan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Moustafa, Tamir. 2007. The Struggle for Constitutional Power: Law, Politics, and Economic
Development in Egypt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stern, Rachel. 2013. Environmental Litigation in China: A Study in Political Ambivalence.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Mark Fathi Massoud is Assistant Professor in the Politics Department and Legal Studies
Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His research focuses on law and society
in fragile states and on Islamic law and society. He is the author of Law’s Fragile State: Colonial,
Authoritarian, and Humanitarian Legacies in Sudan (Cambridge University Press 2013,
Cambridge Studies in Law and Society). Massoud has published in Law & Society Review and
Law & Social Inquiry, and he is a recipient of both the LSA graduate student paper and
dissertation prizes.