法律是现代社会的日常生活中平凡而又特别的一个方面。此课程考察了法律作为一种社会制度，以及作为流行文化的一种突出表现的核心特征。我们将探讨的内容有，法律作为一套社会系统的性质，该系统中的主要行动者，法律推理，以及法律形态和法律推理之于社会变迁的关系。强调法律设置的内在逻辑与经济的、政治的以及社会的过程的关系。着眼于养成如此看待法律的眼光：将法律视作操作性资源，视作解决最大范围内不确定的社会事务、问题和冲突的一种机制，同时也视作人们共享的一套观点和渴求。
Law is a common and yet distinct aspect of everyday life in modern societies. This course examines the central features of law as a social institution and as a feature of popular culture. We will explore the nature of law as a set of social systems, central actors in the systems, legal reasoning, and the relationship of the legal form and reasoning to social change. The course emphasizes the relationship between the internal logic of legal devices and economic, political and social processes. Emphasis is placed upon developing a perspective which views law as a practical resource, a mechanism for handling the widest range of unspecified social issues, problems, and conflicts, and at the same time, as a set of shared representations and aspirations.

我们将探究法律执行者（律师、法官、执法机关和行政官员），也探求诉求法律者（市民、原告、被告）的法律经历之广度。我们将考察法律怎样经由专业人士和普通市民发起和推展开来。此课程不可能涵盖法律系统的各个方面，也不可能顾及到所有不同的法律行动者。我们挑选了部分主题，从中了解法律系统中的行动者进行操作和角色扮演时对情境和系统的需求；同时，努力发掘法律应用及其后果的系统模式。贯穿整个课程的关注点是要理解合法性和法治的含义。
We will explore the range of experiences of law for its ministers (lawyers, judges, law enforcement agents and administrators) as well as for its supplicants (citizens, plaintiffs, defendants). We will examine how law is mobilized and deployed by professionals and ordinary citizens. We cannot cover all aspects of the legal system, nor focus on all the different actors. A set of topics has been selected to develop understanding of the situational and systemic demands within which actors in the legal system operate and perform their roles; at the same time, we will try to discover systematic patterns in the uses and consequences of law. Throughout the course there is concern for understanding what we mean by legality and the rule of law.