ANNE A. A. JANSSEN, SONJA BEKKER, KEES VAN DEN BOS
{"title":"The pre-dispute phase up close: experiences of visitors to Dutch legal aid centres","authors":"ANNE A. A. JANSSEN, SONJA BEKKER, KEES VAN DEN BOS","doi":"10.1111/jols.70073","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jols.70073","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Given indications of rising challenges for marginalized citizens in the pre-dispute phase of civil procedures, we studied this phase up close at Dutch legal aid centres using the framework of William Felstiner et al. on naming, blaming, and claiming. Interviews were conducted with 116 visitors to these centres. We asked them when and why they had come. Respondents had come because they had questions on both naming their justiciable issue and blaming the opposing party. Interestingly, respondents who needed help with blaming the opposing party were not necessarily able to name their justiciable issue in legal terms. Our findings highlight the iterative character of the naming and blaming stages, and that respondents in both the naming and blaming stages were able to articulate their issue in only very general legal terms. Furthermore, our findings show the multifaceted role of legal aid centres in supporting marginalized citizens in effectuating their rights.</p>","PeriodicalId":51544,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law and Society","volume":"53 3","pages":"426-451"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jols.70073","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148943575","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
JOSEPHINE T. V. GREENBROOK, EMMA LUNDBERG, KARIN ÅBERG, MAYSSA REKHIS, LISEN DELLENBORG, ANDREA SPEHAR, LENA GROSS
{"title":"Forging legal communitas: physicians’ resistance in media discourses in Sweden's ‘Snitch Law’ debate","authors":"JOSEPHINE T. V. GREENBROOK, EMMA LUNDBERG, KARIN ÅBERG, MAYSSA REKHIS, LISEN DELLENBORG, ANDREA SPEHAR, LENA GROSS","doi":"10.1111/jols.70075","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jols.70075","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In October 2022, the Swedish government announced a series of reforms in the field of migration policy, including a proposed legal obligation requiring all employees in public institutions, including healthcare professionals, to report people living as undocumented migrants in the country to the authorities. This article examines the intense public debate that followed, focusing on the interventions of physicians, their collectives, and medical organizations. In their responses, physicians protested by invoking their primary duty to provide care, the heightened vulnerability of undocumented patients, and the erosion of trust that such legislation would entail. In doing so, they rejected the intrusion of bureaucratic law, and what the social movement termed <i>Angiverilagen</i> (the ‘Snitch Law’), into clinical spaces, and instead oriented themselves towards the perceived moral compass of their profession. Through their collective resistance to the proposed legislation, we argue, physicians came to articulate an alternative normative order grounded in professional ethics: a legal communitas.</p>","PeriodicalId":51544,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law and Society","volume":"53 3","pages":"496-520"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jols.70075","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148943332","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A corporate turn? Insights from Colombia, the world's contemporary laboratory for transitional justice","authors":"LINE JESPERSGAARD JAKOBSEN","doi":"10.1111/jols.70078","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jols.70078","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Corporate accountability remains marginal in transitional justice, despite growing evidence of economic actors’ complicity in armed conflicts. This article examines Colombia's transitional justice system to explain the persistent exclusion of corporate responsibility. Drawing on Robert Cover's concepts of <i>nomos</i>, narrative, and polynomia, it shows how state‑centric transitional justice scriptures legitimize the omission of economic dimensions. Colombia's Special Jurisdiction for Peace provides a revealing case; though it leads globally in judicial actions involving businesses, most complicit corporations remain untouched. Linking local practices to the global transitional justice scripture, the article argues that an internationally standardized <i>nomos</i> narrows transitional justice into jurispathic, state‑centred practices that confine knowledge, privilege law over politics, and cast economic actors as neutral. These entrenched normative structures hinder the practical translation of the emerging scholarly ‘corporate turn’. Colombia's experience thus exposes both the potential and the structural limitations of integrating corporate accountability into post‑conflict justice.</p>","PeriodicalId":51544,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law and Society","volume":"53 3","pages":"452-473"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jols.70078","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148943430","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The medico-legal autopsy: medicine, expertise, and death investigation","authors":"IMOGEN JONES","doi":"10.1111/jols.70077","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jols.70077","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article sheds important new light on the hybrid space between medicine and law in which medico-legal autopsies are situated. By examining original empirical data obtained during interviews with pathologists, I reveal a web of authority claims both within the profession and in its relationship to law. Drawing on the sociology of medicine, I note the importance of expert status to both the pathologist's identity and their contribution to law. This is constituted via a combination of trained technical skills and tacit knowledge. However, I note the ways in which these pathologists framed their conclusions as ‘opinion’. This, I argue, both reflects the ambiguity inherent in clinical judgement and is a device to limit credibility-damaging challenges, especially during legal adjudications. It may therefore be that a gap exists between law's desire for facts and the contribution that these professionals can, and are willing, to contribute towards achieving that end.</p>","PeriodicalId":51544,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law and Society","volume":"53 3","pages":"474-495"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jols.70077","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148943539","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Is there a ‘right’ to use Welsh in prison?","authors":"GREGORY DAVIES, ROBERT JONES","doi":"10.1111/jols.70072","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jols.70072","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The use of the Welsh language is generally understood as a ‘right’ in contemporary Wales. While this right is often lauded as one of Welsh devolution's defining achievements, the efficacy of current protections is contested. This article contributes to the debate by focusing on the prison context, where the question of Welsh language rights is particularly complex. Drawing on interviews with Welsh-speaking former prisoners, stakeholders with experience of monitoring Welsh language provision in prison, and documentary analysis, we subject the ‘rights’ label to empirical scrutiny. We find implementation gaps in official policy across the Welsh prison estate, scepticism among former prisoners towards existing protections, and limited oversight. The article concludes that while Welsh-speaking prisoners may have ‘rights’ in a broad sense, these rights guarantee little in practice. Entirely contingent on the goodwill of prison authorities and weakened by constitutional complexity, they are a stark reminder of Welsh devolution's limited progress.</p>","PeriodicalId":51544,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law and Society","volume":"53 3","pages":"568-590"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jols.70072","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148943444","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Governing the Metaverse: Law, Order and Freedom in Digital Space By Mark Findlay, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2025, 246 pp., £95.00","authors":"OREN PEREZ","doi":"10.1111/jols.70071","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jols.70071","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51544,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law and Society","volume":"53 3","pages":"597-603"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148943733","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Manning the Law: Why the Legal Person Remains a Man By Ngaire Naffine, Oxford: Hart, 2025, 248 pp., £90.00","authors":"ELLIE WHITTINGDALE","doi":"10.1111/jols.70069","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jols.70069","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51544,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law and Society","volume":"53 3","pages":"591-596"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148943628","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Public understandings of self-defence claims by domestic abuse victim-survivors","authors":"VANESSA BETTINSON, NICOLA WAKE, THOMAS CROFTS","doi":"10.1111/jols.70074","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jols.70074","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article explores public understandings of self-defence claims in fatal and non-fatal domestic abuse cases. The topic is of contemporary interest following the government's rejection of proposals to introduce a bespoke defence for domestic abuse victims who use force against their abusers based on the inaccurate claim that the defence of self-defence is adequately accessible to them. Evidence shows that the application of the self-defence framework by courts is highly gendered, and access to it is limited in these cases. We present findings of a study that asks the public whether the claim of self-defence would and should be available in a range of domestic abuse-based vignettes. These findings reveal both support for greater access to self-defence claims by domestic abuse victim-defendants than currently exists, and a need for public education about the dynamics of coercive and controlling behaviour. We highlight the significance of contextual factors arising in focus group discussions and their alignment with the theory of social entrapment.</p>","PeriodicalId":51544,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law and Society","volume":"53 3","pages":"521-544"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jols.70074","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148943515","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reimagining public governance through the commons: prefigurative legality at play?","authors":"MARGHERITA PIERACCINI","doi":"10.1111/jols.70079","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jols.70079","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article contributes to the emerging scholarship on prefigurative legality by prompting critical questions on the boundaries of prefigurative legality itself. The article does so by reviewing two selected experiments for creating urban commons in Italy. Both experiments have engaged creatively with the law, developing two different legal models. However, it is not clear whether such models can be considered examples of prefigurative legality. The uncertainty is due to the fact that the assessment depends on which features we, as analysts, emphasize when discussing prefigurative legality. This brings us to investigate how different features of prefigurative legality might connect with strands of existing socio-legal scholarship, prompting more general reflections on prefigurative legality's place within the field of socio-legal studies.</p>","PeriodicalId":51544,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law and Society","volume":"53 3","pages":"403-425"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jols.70079","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148943614","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Do impartial tax law experts exist? Legal academics’ restricted autonomy in a crowded field of experts","authors":"HELLE DYRENDAHL STAVEN, MARTE MANGSET","doi":"10.1111/jols.70076","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jols.70076","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In tax policy, expert advice abounds, often aligned with either state or market interests – but can there be impartial experts in tax law, and can academics play that role? Drawing on the sociology of expertise and domination, we examine the practices, valuation, and institutional autonomy of Norwegian tax law academics. We find no clear distinction between academics and other professionals in knowledge production or arenas of influence, and limited institutional support for autonomy. However, an analysis of expert statements in the debate on the ‘exit tax’ reform reveals diverse academic arguments and no systematic alignment with one type of interests, which indicate that the academic field is not uniformly dominated by either the state or the market. We propose that boundary blurring and maintenance by actors across the state, the market, and academia legitimize an expert discourse that serves academics and state and market actors alike.</p>","PeriodicalId":51544,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Law and Society","volume":"53 3","pages":"545-567"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jols.70076","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148943333","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}