ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at several foundational debates within the subfield of the sociology of law. It focuses on the problems and implications raised by four key sociology-of-law debates surrounding normativity versus objectivity, sociological empiricism, levels of analysis, and order versus conflict. The problem for sociology is that such natural rights concepts exist within universe that is unassailable and unknowable. The subfield of the sociology of law has provided a space for these disciplinary discussions to define subfield while shaping the contours of the broader discipline. The tensions surrounding this fact/value question are foundational in the sociology of the law and in the broader discipline as well. The nebulous and indistinct nature of human rights presents a number of difficulties for their sociological study. The normative component that exists within this sociological framework resides within the idea of social relationships. The importance of social relationships, social embeddedness, and the individual's existence as social being is taken as a given in sociology.
