Introduction

Abstract

Western legal texts often characterize law as an impartial discourse of reason that regulates but stands apart from the messy reality of our social lives. On this view, legal precepts operate in abstraction from the particular social and historical context within which they developed. By contrast, socio-legal perspectives emphasize law’s interaction with the world of which it is a part, recognizing that law is both influenced by and influences the social context within which it operates. Socio-legal perspectives also attend to the embodied operation of the law—how it defines, corrals, and disciplines human bodies. The embodied operation of the law is evident in many different arenas, going w..