Law and Civilization: Norbert Elias as a Regulation Theorist

The German sociologist Norbert Elias developed a wide-ranging sociological analysis of the interconnections between processes of state formation, institutional dynamics, and individual subjectivity, or habitus, and the logic of their processes of transformation over time. His work has had significant impact on social scientific thought in a wide variety of fields, including the historical sociology of the self, violence, crime and punishment, organizations, emotions, sexuality, social control, and sport. His influence in legal scholarship, however, has concentrated in criminology, with only sporadic use of his ideas in relation to other topics in law and social science research. This review highlights the ways in which Elias can be read as a theorist of regulation by outlining ( a) the core elements of Elias's “process-figurational” sociology and his analysis of processes of civilization and decivilization; ( b) Elias's observations on law and state formation; ( c) a selection of the sociolegal research related to his sociological approach, in fields such as crime and punishment, evolving modes of regulation, and international relations; and ( d) the potential future directions in which Elias's process-figurational approach might move in sociolegal research and scholarship. These include the emotional dimensions of family law, human rights and humanitarianism, the intersections of legal evolution and broader processes of social change, legal pluralism and legal culture, tort law, constitutionalism, and the rule of law.