Håkan Hydén's book is a groundbreaking work. It lays the foundation for a new field of research: Sociology of law as the science of norms.
Hydén's overarching argument is that we must begin to take seriously the fundamental role that norms actually play in shaping society. This starting point must then be followed up with thorough, in-depth, and systematic studies focusing on how norms function as society-forming entities. Hydén's book is a paradigmatic example of how this might be done.
In the notion of norms, Hydén not only includes legal norms but all kinds of social norms underlying the legal order. In the field of normative research that Hydén founds with this book, the starting point is that the norms create the social reality rather than the other way around. Furthermore, he transcends the traditional understanding of norms as prescriptions for action in that he also consider norms as instruments of analysis intended to explore the underlying beliefs and motivating factors that they express. This new field of research thus deviates quite substantially from the usual approaches in the sociology of law. With Hydén's pioneering work, this is a field that is already broadening the sociology of law and bringing to it different and new perspectives.
A central aim of the book is to lay the foundations for a comprehensive science of norms adapted to the particular problems and conditions of this era, such as mass surveillance and genetic engineering, where science has also become increasingly fragmented and specialized. A fragmented world, Hydén argues, can be made more intelligible if it is explained by the analytical tools of a unified theory of the fundamental role of norms in society.
The science of norms that Hydén presents is a science in a strictly empirical sense; to paraphrase David Hume it is a description of what norms are and not a discursive exposition of how they ought to be. It is a science of norms, to be distinguished from a normative science as Hydén himself puts it. He does not even claim to have presented a theory in this book. Rather, he sees the idea about sociology of law as the science of norms as a perspective that can be used as a basis for new theories capable of dealing with the massive paradigm shift that is now being propelled by society itself and not by theories of society.
While there is a point in making such a distinction between society and theories of society, I do not agree with Hydén on this point. Sociology of law as the science of norms is a theory, and in addition it is a very advanced theory. Theories are models of thought that comprehensively and systematically connect and explain a vast amount of facts into a coherent whole. Perspectives are not in themselves theories but rather heuristic starting points in theory formation. On this basis, Hydén's science of norms is too well thought out, elaborate, profound, and wide-ranging to be referred to merely as a perspective.
One part in Hydéns theory is meta-theoretical in that it aims to explain what sociology of law as the science of norms might entail and why it is necessary to lay the foundations for such a field of research. Another part concerns the tension between what Jurgen Habermas calls lifeworld and system. Other parts focus, among other things, on the normative development of the legal system and its underlying moral and social domains. The theory also includes fascinating and enlightening discussions of the challenges facing law in an age when regulation is partly based on assumptions that did not apply in the past. Whereas law in the industrial era was based on compromises and trade-offs between different interests and values, in the digital era law is based more on binary solutions. Within the framework of his theory, Hydén also introduces a new figure of thought, “strategic normative thinking,” intended to generate innovative solutions for self-regulation on a consensual basis and according to the motivations of the parties involved.
Hydén has created a rich and multifaceted theory that integrates various scientific disciplines in an impressively well-crafted manner around the central idea that the methodical study of norms is a way of explaining human behavior and choice. To this end, he develops an approach that offers broader horizons than the traditional sociological explanatory models that assume an individualistic methodology in the study of society and its processes of change. While placing the individual in his or her social environment, Hydén emphasizes that this environment is made up of interpersonal interactions whose content is not suspended in the air but is governed by various kinds of norms, of which the legal norms are only one part. Recognition of the complex interplay between social and systemic norms is also an important starting point for understanding societal development.
This approach has fundamental existential significance. People are rarely aware that—let alone how—their lives are governed by norms, how norms determine what they choose to do and, just as importantly, how norms influence perceptions of what choices there are to make in the first place. Hydén's reasoning on this subject is based on a profound knowledge of human thought and emotional life. It also provides deep insights into the relationship between the horizons of understanding at the level of individual psychology and the mechanisms of action governed by the laws of social psychology.
Hydén's presentation is characterized by intellectual vigor and by a pathos grounded in a deeply felt need to understand a world now in rapid upheaval. The knowledge conveyed in the book is deeply impressive, obviously acquired over a lifetime of professional work. There is only one thing to hope for in terms of the future development of knowledge about the crucial role of norms in society: that sociology of law as the science of norms will establish itself as a field of research in its own right.
