Law as the lens by which to consider social theory: methodology and content. Develops ideas from Unger's Knowledge and Politics.

Insight: concise overview of social theory (Marx, Weber, Durkheim) and its contrast to ancient philosophy, showing the flaws of the former.

Insight: regulatory / bureaucratic law distinct from the ideal of law as order; former occurs frequently in history, but latter seems unique to W Europa (and colonies) in modern era.

Insight: immanent religions do not support a distinction between normative and factual accounts of behavior; social order is conceived as extension of natural order. This makes the transcendent religion of Western Europa a key facilitator of the law of order ideal. [This may be supported historically, but I see no reason why it must be this way. Hopi, Dine, Apache cultures would seem to have understood the need for positive law. While there is a natural order, it is not a given, and human effort is needed to achieve as well as maintain this prescriptive ideal.]

Offers criticism of modernity, noting liberalism is splitting into post-liberal, traditionalist, and revolutionary socialist strains. Gives explanation of how this plays out in terms of law. ( )