1999 Annual Report of the Section on the Sociology of Law



1. A Business Meeting was held on Monday, August 9, 1999, 11:30am at the 
annual meeting of the ASA in Chicago. There were 32 members present. 
Business discussed included: ASA Committee on Sections, search for a new 
newsletter editor, award of prizes, membership outreach and approval of 
budget 

Business meeting minutes submitted by Kitty Calavita, Secretary/Treasurer.
Chair Susan Silbey began by explaining the role of the Committee on 
Sections (COS), which oversees the activities of the individual sections. 
She reported that the meeting of the COS included some criticism from 
section members regarding a relative lack of representation on the 
Committee on Sections. She announced that a petition is circulating, 
which would change the composition of the COS, to include 3 more members 
elected from past chairs of sections (one each from small, medium, and 
large sections). This petition requires 450 signatures to pass.

Carol Heimer, Chair of the article prize committee, reported that there 
were few submissions for this prize, and the committee therefore took an 
active role in reviewing a wide range of articles from major journals 
including the Law and Society Review, the American Journal of Sociology, 
the American Sociological Review, and Law and Social Inquiry. Ultimately, 
they considered 50 articles over a two-year period. The award went to 
Kitty Calavita for her article, "Immigration, Law, and Marginalization in 
a Global Economy: Notes from Spain," in the Law and Society Review, 
Volume 32, 1998: 529-566. Honorable mentions went to Frank Dobbin and 
John R. Sutton for their article, "The Strength of a Weak State: The 
Rights Revolution and the Rise of Human Resources Management Divisions," 
American Journal of Sociology, Volume 104, 1998: 441-476; and Joseph 
Sanders, V. Lee Hamilton, and Toshiyuki Yuasa for their article, "The 
Institutionalization of Sanctions for Wrongdoing Inside Organizations," 
Law and Society Review, Volume 32, 1998: 871-929.

Chair Susan Silbey (for student prize committee Chair, John Noakes)
announced that the undergraduate student prize goes to Michelle Manasha,
Franklin and Marshall College, for her paper "The Organizational Process
Leading to Successful Juvenile Detention Reform: Arizona Juvenile
Corrections,1986-1999".  The best graduate student paper prize was given
to Annette Nierobisz, University of Toronto, for her paper, "Wrongful
Dismissal Litigation in and Era of Economic Uncertainty: Exploring the
Influence of Changing Economies in Judicial Decisions" 

Matt Silberman, Chair of the Publciations Committee, announced that we
need to find a replacement for Bob Kidder as Newsletter editor. He
described the various sections of the Newsletter--teaching, graduate
student affairs, recent publications column, employment column--and the
fact that we need to recruit people to the publications committee who can
take responsibility for these sections. Matt is in charge of the
electronic end of the Newsletter and the section home page and will
continue to be responsible for these. There was some discussion of
allowing the new editor to hire an assistant for approximately $300, and
it was decided that we should not specify that this position necessarily
go to a student--graduate or undergraduate--but that this should be up to
the discretion of the new editor. 

Next year's program was discussed at some length. Nancy Reichman 
discussed tentative plans for next year's sessions, suggesting that they 
might include a session highlighting graduate student papers, either 
alone or together with a faculty member; Liz Boyle may develop a 
partnership with the section on comparative-historical research, and 
initiate some swapping of sessions with them; and, we may continue our 
partnership with crime, law, and deviance and develop a session on the 
mutual connections between criminology and the sociology of law. We were 
reminded that sessions for next year's meeting need to be in place by 
September 10.

It was pointed out that since next year's meeting is in Washington, DC, 
the sociology of law section might play a unique role. One suggestion was 
for our section to sponsor a field-trip/tour of DC courts. Another 
possibility was to sponsor a workshop/didactic seminar on how to use 
legal resources in research, keeping in mind that members of many other 
sections do research in which legal resources might be useful. This 
latter event could be either free or on a fee basis, and could be either 
just before the meetings or as a regular panel (in addition to our 
regularly allotted sessions).

There was also an open discussion of what kinds of topics our section 
should highlight at the ASA meeting in Anaheim, California, in 2001. It 
was suggested that, particularly given the location, we might emphasize 
themes related to 1) immigration law and policy (with Doug Massey as 
President that year, this might be developed as a plenary); 2) law and 
pop culture; 3) law and globalization; 4) Disneyland; 5) a joint effort 
with science, knowledge, and technology. In addition, we might try to 
develop the didactic workshop on legal resources discussed above.

Secretary-Treasurer Kitty Calavita presented the budget. She pointed out 
that our section has developed a small reserve of $1870.01. She noted 
that approximately $300 of our assets this year and $300 last year were 
the result of an error by the ASA, thereby making the short-term increase 
in assets more than it otherwise would have been. There was some 
discussion about modest increases to our budget, in particular for the 
annual section reception, which we do jointly with the section on crime, 
law, and deviance. This year, $800 was allotted for the reception, and 
food ran out early. Calavita presented a draft budget for 2000 in which 
the reception budget would increase to $1000; $300 would go toward 
increasing membership; and $300 would go toward hiring an assistant for 
the Newsletter; an extra $50 would be put aside for possible postage 
increases for the Newsletter; other expenses would remain the same as 
for1999.
Section expenses for 2000 would thus be:
$1000 annual meeting reception (up from $800)
$1450 Newsletter (up from $1100)
$50 awards
$100 postage
$300 recruitment
TOTAL EXPENSES: $2900

The budget was approved and the meeting was adjourned at 12:30.

2. Sociology of Law Section Council Meeting was held Monday August 9 from 
10:30 - 11:30 am, at the ASA annual meeting in Chicago.

Minutes of the Council meeting were reported by Kitty Calavita, Secretary 
Treasurer.


Present: Susan Silbey, Chair
	     Robin Stryker, Chair-elect
	     Nancy Reichman, incoming Chair-elect
	     Kitty Calavita, Secretary-Treasurer
	     John Hagan, Chair, Nominations Committee
	     Matt Silberman, Publications Committee 
	     Carol Heimer, Chair, Article Prize Committee
	     Bryant Garth, Council member
	     Mark Suchman, Council member
	     Joachim Savelsberg, Council member
	     Jerry VanHoy, Council member
	     Wendy Espeland, Council member

The meeting began at 10:30. The first order of business was a report from 
John Hagan and Mark Suchman on the nominations committee. They are 
soliciting nominations and volunteers to be considered for office in the 
section. 

Next, Carol Heimer, Chair of the article prize committee, reported that 
since they did not receive many nominations, they took an active role in 
reviewing articles from the major journals, including the Law and Society 
Review, the American Journal of Sociology, the American Sociological 
Review, and Law and Social Inquiry. Ultimately, they considered 50 
articles over two years. The winner was to be announced at the general 
section meeting.

Susan Silbey gave the student prize committee report, in the absence of 
committee chair, John Noakes. The committee read a number of excellent 
undergraduate and graduate papers, and the winners were to be announced 
at the general meeting.

Matt Silberman discussed the need to find a new Newsletter editor for 
AMICI. Susan Silbey put forward the idea of paying a graduate student a 
small stipend for assisting a new editor with the Newsletter production. 
She proposed the possibility of advertising on the listserv for a new 
Newsletter editor, with the understanding that they would be able to hire 
a student (for approximately $300) to assist them.

The content of the Newsletter was also discussed. Susan Silbey said that 
sometimes things come to the major journals that are not appropriate for 
publication in the journal--such as conference reports--that might go to 
the Newletter instead. In addition, Matt discussed the need for 
volunteers to serve on the publications committee. While Matt is 
responsible for the section web page and other electronic outlets for the 
section, volunteers are needed for the graduate student section of the 
Newsletter. 

Robin Stryker discussed a number of issues relating to next year's 
program. For the past two years, our section has coordinated with other 
sections (gender, organizations, etc.) and has managed to organize three 
sessions at the meetings, instead of our normal allotment of two. New 
partnerships were discussed for next year, including the possibility of 
coordinating with the crime, law, and deviance section; historical 
comparative; medicine; or, science and technology. An idea was put 
forward to do a graduate student session, in which the panelists are 
either all graduate students presenting their research, or graduate 
students and a faculty member. It was decided that, assuming we get 3 
sessions, they might be: a graduate student session; a session in 
collaboration with crime, law, and deviance; and a session organized by 
Liz Boyle either in collaboration with the comparative historical section 
or on her own. The deadline for establishing sessions for next year's 
meeting is September 10.

It was pointed out that there has been no active membership committee, 
and that we need to name a chair and re-establish that committee. Various 
methods of attracting new members were discussed. It was noted that many 
sections that are not explicitly law-related include significant 
socio-legal components, and that we might recruit for membership from 
some of these sections. The examples of science, knowledge and 
technology, and comparative historical were given. We might then target 
presenters who give interesting papers at these sessions for possible 
membership. Other areas of recruitment might be: 1) the authors of the 50 
articles reviewed by the prize committee; 2) people nominated for office 
in the section who are not members; 3) students who were nominated for 
best paper prizes.

Kitty Calavita presented the 1998-1999 and 1999-2000 section budget 
information. She noted that the section has a gradually increasing, but 
still small, reserve of funds. The section revenues come from three main 
sources: dues, ASA allotment for the section, and donations. It was noted 
that approximately $300 of our assets this year and $300 last year were 
the result of an error by the ASA, thereby making the short-term increase 
more than it otherwise would have been. Net assets for 1999 are $1870.01. 
There was some discussion about modest increases to our budget, in 
particular for the annual section reception. This year, $800 was allotted 
for the reception, and some remarked that food ran out early. 
Consideration was given to increasing the reception budget to $1000-1200. 
Our reception has been joint with the crime, law, and deviance section. 
Consideration was also given to enhancing the budgets of the Newsletter 
(to hire a student), and to the membership committee for mailings, etc.

New Business: Susan Silbey discussed the increased rationalization of ASA 
procedures, and the need for more detailed reports from the various 
committees of the sections (our section tends to submit excellent 
reports). While the sociology of law section has 306 members (the minimum 
for a section of the ASA is 300), our survival is probably not in 
jeopardy, because the ASA uses both quantitative and qualitative criteria 
for evaluating the viability of sections. Nonetheless, Susan underscored 
the importance of continuing recruitment efforts. In addition, Chair 
Silbey discussed the role of the Committee on Sections (COS) of the ASA, 
which establishes governance policies for sections and oversees their 
operations. She reported that at the COS meeting, there was some 
discussion of further democratizing the relations between COS and the 
individual sections. Finally, the Chair mentioned the efforts of Austin 
Sarat to establish a consortium on interdisciplinary socio-legal studies, 
comprised of the various social science associations with socio-legal 
components. She will put his proposal for such a consortium in the 
Newsletter.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:30.

Respectfully submitted by:

Susan S. Silbey
Section Chair, Sociology of Law

November 17, 1999