Invitation To Law And Society Analysis

The relationship between the law and society affects everyone and everything. How the law is written and how it is acted upon in society are two different things. It is imperative, therefore, that we as citizens pay attention to and understand the importance of the relationship between the law and society as it affects both our own lives and the lives of those around us. We engage in and witness the power of the law and society everyday. The law is personal, however, the law is also discretionary depending on where you look. Furthermore, from two scholarly perspectives, authors Richard Rothstein and Kitty Calavita, we can deepen our engagement with this relationship in their books, The Color of Law and Invitation to Law and Society, An Introduction

Calavita’s sociological approach works to further interpret Rothstein’s concepts for how social understanding becomes law or close to it. The author’s first concept, how the law is both everyday and everywhere, enforces the spectrum of influence that the law has on the workings of society. Calavita explains, “It is this everyday nature of law-its ability to influence our most mundane activities and even to determine what those activities are-that makes it such a powerful resource for those who would shape the socioeconomic order to their advantage” (Calavita, 42). Additionally, similar to Rothstein’s argument, Calavita articulates “the color of law” as historical changes in the definition of what it meant to be a citizen in the United States were based on the color of your

The relationship between society and the law is direct, and housing in America is a conclusive example of that. As argued by both authors, once society has made up its mind about a certain group of people or place such as the ghettos, even the law can’t change those facts. It often happens that people of color and minorities get overlooked and stereotyped into something that they are not due to the hierarchical and discriminatory principles of the law. It has been engrained into society to think that minorities are poor, lazy, and overall less productive in the public