本书作者以罗马法、英国普通法、欧陆普通法等不同类型法律的历史发展为纵线，以法律的结构与功能为横线，集中阐述了“联合体内在秩序”这个关键性概念，并就此提出“活法”的思想，“活法”即联合体的内在秩序，这是与**执行的法律相对的社会执行的法律。社会并非是一个相互隔绝的抽象的个人集合，而是具有相互联系的人类联合体的总和。这些联合的内在秩序就是历史的起点。他认为无论在任何时候，法律发展的**都不在立法、法律科学，也不在司法判断，而是在社会本身。

Many decades ago Ofner of Vienna pointed out the possibility
of instituting a direct investigation of the sense of law and right
(Rechtsgefiihl) by means of juristic experiment. A year ago
Kobler discussed the idea in detail in the Vienna Juristische
Blatter, and actually instituted experiments in the Freie
juristische Vereini~ gung, which he himself had founded.
Actual or fictitious law cases, even entire court proceedings,
are being submitted to the persons who are being used for the
experiment, who must not be jurists, and who are requested to
express an opinion on them. They can do this only by relying
on their sense of law and right. Is not everyone reminded of the
psychometry of the school of Fechner and Wundt? These tests
are open to the same objections that have been urged against
psychometry. The person who permits himself to be used for
the experiment is not in his usual frame of mind, and he knows,
too, that his judgment does not decide the case; the fictitious
case arouses no passions, does not agitate the emotions, but
addresses itself to the intellect alone. These are sources of error
which a correct method must compute and take into account. In
spite of this however the attempt will produce valuable results,
provided one does not forget about the sources of error.
Method is as infinite as science itself.

CONTENTS 导读 i. T HE P RACTICAL C ONCEPT OF L AW ii. The Inner Order of the Social Associations iii. The Social Associations and the Social Norms iv. Social and State Sanction of the Norms v. The Facts of the Law vi. The Norms for Decision vii. The State and the Law viii. The Creation of the Legal Proposition ix. The Structure of the Legal Proposition x. The Varying Content of the Concept of Justice xi. Juristic Science in Rome xii. Juristic Science in England xiii. The Juristic Science of the Older Continental Common Law xiv. The Historical Trend in the Juristic Science of the Continental Common Law xv. The Function of Juristic Science xvi. The Law Created by the State xvii. Changes in the Law in the State and in Society xviii. The Theory of Customary Law xix. The Methods of the Sociology of Law. I. Legal History and Juristic Science xx. The Methods of the Sociology of Law. II. The Study the Living Law 术语汇编与简释 以实际页码为准