Illuminating Max Weber’s Sociology of Law and Methodological Writings

This volume of collected essays by Hubert Treiber, one of Weber’s leading interpreters and an authoritative expert on Weber’s sociology of law, brings a number of translated works to English-speaking readers, offering the opportunity to gain a fuller and a more accurate understanding of Max Weber’s legal thinking.

The book contains six essays by Treiber, and an important essay by Monika Frommel in response to Treiber. Throughout the collection, the chapters are united by the thread of Treiber’s consistent attempts to provide historical contexts and to clarify Weber’s legal concepts and definitions. The concepts discussed communicate to English readers the specific meanings that Weber associated with them in the German original, and which may have been missed by those who do not know German or who have historically relied on imprecise translations.

As such, it brings together and makes accessible a new and important body of knowledge concerning Max Weber’s sociology of law and will appeal to scholars and researchers with interests in Max Weber, social theory, philosophy of law, jurisprudence, and philosophy of social sciences.