Max Weber’s Comparative and Historical Sociology of Law. Extending the Legal Paradigm: A Prolegomenon

The recently established Complete Collection of Max Weber’s Writings [the Max Weber Gesamtausgabe] resulted in a new orientation to Weber’s Sociology of Law, now known as the Developmental Conditions of the Law. This retitling of Weber’s work-in-progress stresses the developmental intent of Weber’s study which holds the project together. Another reading of that work suggests four different levels of legal change embedded in Weber’s text and with the possibility of outlining a research program, enhanced by more recent historical studies, that prepares the way for comparing the developmental trajectories of European, Islamic, Chinese, and Russian law in appropriate time periods. This is the first installment of such a study.

1. Adair-Toteff, Christopher [2011]. My sociology: Wolfgang Schluchter on the History of Max Weber's. Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, Journal of Classical Sociology 11 (4): 495-505. CrossRef

2. Anderson, J. N. D. [1976]. Law Reform in the Muslim World. London: Athlone Press.

3. Applebaum, Anne [2024]. Autocracy, Inc. The Dictators Who Want to Run the World. New York: Random House.

4. Bagge, Sverre Hakon [2019]. State Formation in Europe, 853-1789. London: Routledge.

5. Berg, Herbert [2020]. The Islamic Origins and the Quran. In. Shah, Mustafa - Haleem, Muhammad Abdel et al. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Quranic Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 2-62.

6. Berkey, Jonathan [1992]. The Transmission of Knowledge in Medieval Cairo. A Social History of Islamic Education. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

7. Berman, Harold J. [1983]. Law and Revolution. The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

8. Berman, Harold J. [2003]. Law and Revolution, II. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

9. Berman, Harold J. - Reid, Charles Jr. [2000]. Max Weber as Legal Historian. In. Turner, Stephen (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Weber. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 223-239.

10. Bodde, Derk - Morris, Clarence [1967]. Law in Imperial China. Exemplified by 190 Ch'ing Dynasty Cases. With Historical, Social, and Juridical Commentaries. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

11. Borchardt, Knut [2002]. Max Weber's Writings on the Bourse: Puzzling Out a Forgotten Corpus. Max Weber Studies 2 (2): 139-162.

12. Brundage, James [2008a]. The Medieval Origins of the Legal Profession. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

13. Brundage, James [2008b]. The Teaching and Study of Canon Law in the Law Schools. In. Pennington, Kenneth - Hartmann, Wilfried (eds.). The History of Medieval Canon Law in the Classical Period, 1140-1234. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University Press of America, pp. 98-120. CrossRef

14. Butler, William E. [1993]. Justice in Russia's Soviet Law and Russian History. Emory Law Journal 42 (2): 433-448.

15. Catton, Henry [1955]. The Law of Waqf. In. Khaduri, M. - Liebesney, H. (eds.). Law in the Middle East. Washington, D.C.: The Middle East Institute, pp. 203-222.

16. Chamberlin, Michael [1994]. Knowledge and Social Practice in Medieval Damascus 1190-1350. New York: Cambridge University Press.

17. Deflem, Mathieu [2008]. The Sociology of Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

18. Dilcher, Gerhard [2008]. From the History of Law to Sociology: Max Weber's Engagement with the Historical School of Law. Max Weber Studies 8 (2): 163-186. CrossRef

19. Déroche, Francois [2021]. The One and the Many. The Early History of the Qur'an. New Haven: Yale University Press.

20. Downing, Brian M. [1989]. Medieval Origins of Constitutional Governments in the West. Theory and Society 18 (2): 213-247. CrossRef

21. Duff, P. W. [1938]. Personality in Roman Private Law. New York: A. M. Kelley.

22. Dutton, Yasin [1999]. The Origins of Islamic Law. London: Routledge.

23. Curzon. Dutton, Yasin [2012]. Orality, Literacy and the Seven Ahruf Hadith. Journal of Islamic Studies 23 (1): 1-49. CrossRef

24. Ehrlich, Eugen [1913]. Fundamental Principles of the Sociology of Law. New York: Russell & Russell.

25. Ehrlich, Eugen [1922]. The Sociology of Law. Harvard Law Review 36 (2): 130-145. CrossRef

26. Ewing, Sally [1987]. Formal Justice and the Spirit of Capitalism: Max Weber's Sociology of Law. Law & Society Review 21: 487-512. CrossRef

27. Fadel, Mohammad - Monette, Connell [2019]. The Translation of the Royal Moroccan Edition of the Muwatta', Recension of Yahyab. Yahya al-Laythi. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, pp. 7-34.

28. Ford, Laura [2021]. The Intellectual Property of Nations. New York: Cambridge University Press.

29. Ford, Laura [2022]. Max Weber on Property: An Effort in Interpretive Understanding. Socio-Legal Review 6 (1): 24-100. CrossRef

30. Fowler-Magerl, Linda [1984]. Ordo iudiciorum vel ordo iudiciarius. Begriff und Litteraturgattung. Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann.

31. Gephart, Werner [2015]. Law, Culture, and Society. Max Weber's Comparative Cultural Sociology of Law. Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann.

32. Gierke, Otto [1922]. Political Theories of the Middle Ages. Translated with an Introduction by Frederic W. Maitland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

33. Glendon, Mary Ann - Carozza, Paolo G. - Picker, Colin B. [1999]. Comparative Legal Traditions in a Nutshell, 3rd ed. St Paul Minnesota: West Publishing.

34. Hallaq, Wael [1998]. The Qadi's Diwan (sijill) Before the Ottomans. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 3: 414-436.

35. Hallaq, Wael [2005]. The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law. New York: Cambridge University Press.

36. Hallaq, Wael [2009]. Shari'a. Theory, Practice, Transformation. New York: Cambridge University Press.

37. Hanke, Edith G. - Hübinger, G. - Schwentker, W. [2012]. The Genesis of the Max Weber-Gesamtausgabe and the Contribution of Wolfgang Mommsen. Max Weber Studies 12 (1): 59-94. CrossRef

38. Hart, H. L. A. [1961]. The Concept of Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

39. Hartman, Wilfried - Pennington, Kenneth (eds.) [2016]. The History of Courts and Procedure in Medieval Canon Law. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America.

40. Hildermeier, Manfred [2015]. The Russian Revolution. In. The International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, pp. 856-859. CrossRef

41. Hoeflich, Michael - Grabler, Jasonne M. [2008]. The Establishment of Normative Legal texts. The Beginning of the Ius Commune. In. Hartmann, W. - Pennington, K. (eds.). The History of Medieval Canon Law in the Classical Period. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America, pp. 1-21. CrossRef

42. Huff, Toby E. [2017]. The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China and the West, 3rd ed. New York: Cambridge University Press.

43. Huff, Toby E. [2019]. Europe as a Civilization and the Hidden Structure of Modernity. In. Arnason, Johann P. (ed.). European Integration. Historical Trajectories, Geopolitical Contexts. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 14-33. CrossRef

44. Jennings, Ronald [1975]. The Office of Vekil (Wakil) in the 17th Century Ottoman Courts. Studia Islamica 42: 147-169. CrossRef

45. Kalberg, Stephen [2012]. Max Weber's Comparative-Historical Sociology of Today. Surrey: Ashgate.

46. Kaesler, Dirk [1988]. Max Weber. An Introduction to his Life and Work. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

47. Khadduri, M. - Liebesney, H. (eds.) [1955]. Law in the Middle East. Washington, D.C.: The Middle East Institute.

48. Kronman, Anthony T. [1983]. Max Weber. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

49. Kuran, Timur [2011]. The Long Divergence. How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

50. Kuru, Ahmet [2014]. Authoritarianism and Democracy in Muslim Countries: Rentier States and Regional Diffusion. Political Science Quarterly 129 (3): 39-427. CrossRef

51. Kuru, Ahmet [2019]. Islam, Authoritarianism and Underdevelopment. A Global and Historical Comparison. New York: Cambridge University Press.

52. Lacey, Nicola [2004]. A Life of H. L. Hart. The Nightmare and the Noble Dream. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

53. Maitland, Fredric W. [1922]. Introduction. In. Gierke, Otto. Political Theories of the Middle Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. VII-XLV.

54. Makdisi, George [1981]. The Rise of the Colleges: Institutions of Learning in Islam and the West. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

55. Marongiu, Antonio. [1968]. Medieval Parliaments: A Comparative Study. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode.

56. Merryman, John Henry [1985]. The Civil Law Tradition, 2nd ed. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

57. Masud, M. - Messick, B. - Powers, D. S. [1996]. Muftis, Fatwas, and Islamic Legal Interpretation. In. Islamic Legal Interpretation. Muftis and Their Fatwas. Cambridge: Harvard university Press, pp. 3-32.

58. Masud, M. - Peters, R. - Powers, D. [2006]. Qadis and Their Courts: An Historical Survey. In. Masud, M. - Messick, B. - Powers, D. S. (eds.). Dispensing Justice in Islam. Leiden: Brill, pp. 6-16.

59. Masud, M. - Peters, R. - Powers, D. S. (eds.) [2013]. Islamic Legal Thought. A Compendium of Muslim Jurists. Leiden: Brill.

60. Nasser, S. H. [2013]. The Transmission of the Variant Readings of the Quran. Leiden: Brill.

61. Mommsen, Wolfgang J. [2005]. Max Weber's Grand Sociology: The Origins and Composition of Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Soziologie. In. Camic, Charles - Gorski, Philip S. - Trubek, David M. (eds.). Max Weber's Economy and Society. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 70-100. CrossRef

62. Nyazee, Imran Ahsan Khan [1994]. Glossary. In. The Distinguished Jurist's Primer, Bidayat al-Mujtahid. Ibn Rushd, I. Translated by Professor Imran Khan Nyazee, reviewed by Professor Mohammad Adbul Rauf. Reading: Garnet Publishing.

63. Pennington, Kenneth [1993]. The Prince and the Law, 1200-1600: Sovereignty and Rights in the Western Legal Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press.

64. Pennington, Kenneth [1998]. Due Process, Community, and The Prince in the Evolution of the Ordo iudicarius. Rivista internazionale di diritto commune 9: 9-47.

65. Peters, Rudolph - Bearman, Peri [2014]. Introduction: the Nature of the Sharia. In. Peters, R. (ed.). Ashgate Research Companion to Islamic Law. London: Taylor and Francis Group, pp. 1-10.

66. Pipes, Richard [1955]. Max Weber and Russia. World Politics 7 (3): 371-401. CrossRef

67. Pomeranz, William [2018]. Law and the Russian State. Russia's Legal Evolution from Peter the Great to Vladimir Putin. New York: Bloomsbury.

68. Powers, David S. [1992] On Judicial Review in Islamic Law. Law & Society Review 26 (2): 315-341. CrossRef

69. Powers, D. S. [2002]. Law, Society, and Culture in the Maghrib, 1300-1500. New York: Cambridge University Press.

70. Post, Gaines [1964]. Studies in Medieval Legal Thought. Public Law and the State 1100-1322. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

71. Rehbinder, Manfred [1987]. Max Weber und Die Rechtswissenschaft. In. Rehbinder, Manfred - Tieck, Klaus-Peter (eds.). Max Weber als Rechtssoziologe. Berlin: Duncker & Humlot, pp. 127-149.

72. Schacht, Joseph [1964]. Introduction to Islamic Law. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

73. Schacht, Joseph [1974]. Islamic Religious Law. In. The Legacy of Islam, 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 392-403.

74. Schluchter, Wolfgang [1981]. The Rise of Western Rationalism. Max Weber's Developmental History. Berkeley: University of California Press.

75. Schluchter, Wolfgang [1989]. Rationalism, Religion, and Domination. A Weberian Perspective. Berkeley: University of California Press.

76. Schluchter, Wolfgang [1991]. Religion und Lebensführung. Berlin: Suhrkamp.

77. Schluchter, Wolfgang [1999]. Hindrances to Modernity: Max Weber on Islam. In. Huff, Toby E. - Schluchter, Wolfgang (eds.). Max Weber & Islam. New Brunswick: Transactions Books, pp. 53-138. CrossRef

78. Schluchter, Wolfgang [2000]. Verbemerkung: Der Kategorienaufsatz als Schlüssel, In. Individualism, Verantwort, und Vielfel. Berlin: Velbrueck Verlage, pp. 179-189.

79. Schluchter, Wolfgang [2005]. Zur Entstehung von Max Webers Hauptbeitrag zum Handbuch der Politischen Oekonomie: Später, Grundriss der Sozialökonomic. In. Handlung, Ordnung und Kultur. Studien zu einem Forschungsprogramm im Anschluss an Max Weber. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, pp. 229-247.

80. Schluchter, Wolfgang [2013]. On the Place of the Study on Confucianism in Max Weber's Work. Taiwan Journal of East Asian Studies 10 (2): 1-35.

81. Schluchter, Wolfgang [2017]. Max Weber's Sociology of Religion. A Project in Comparison and Developmental History. In. Erdmann, Thomas (ed.). Max Weber's Economic Ethic of the World Religions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

82. Schluchter, Wolfgang [2020]. Mit Max Weber. Tübingen: J. C. Mohr Siebeck.

83. Schluchter, Wolfgang [2023]. Empirische Geltungslehre. Studien zu Max Webers Rechtssoziologie und darüber hinaus. Wiesbaden: Springer.

84. Stern, S. M. [1970]. The Constitution of the Islamic City. In. Hourani, A. H. - Stern, S. M. (eds.). The Islamic City. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 25-50.

85. Strayer, Joseph [1970]. The Medieval Origins of the State. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

86. Swedberg, Richard [1998]. Max Weber and the Idea of Economic Sociology. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

87. Swedberg, Richard [2005]. The Max Weber Dictionary. Key Words and Central Concepts. Sanford: Stanford University Press.

88. Tamanaha, Brian Z. [2020]. Sociological Jurisprudence Past and Present. Review Symposium: Law and Society Meets Jurisprudence. Law & Social Inquiry 45 (2): 493-520. CrossRef

89. Tillier, Mathieu [2009]. Qadis and the Political use of the Mazalim Jurisdiction Under the Abbasids. In. Lange, Christian - Fierro, Mariabel (eds.). Public Violence in Islamic Societies. Power, Discipline and the Construction of the Public Sphere, 7th to 9th Centuries. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 42-66. CrossRef

90. Tillier, Mathieu [2014]. Mazalim Courts. Encyclopaedia of Islam Three. Brill: Leiden.

91. Tilly, Charles (ed.) [1974]. The Formation of National States in Western Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

92. Treiber, Hubert [2012]. On Max Weber's Sociology of Law, now known as the Developmental Conditions of the Law. A Review Essay on MWG I/22-3: Recht. Max Weber Studies 12 (1): 121-138. CrossRef

93. Treiber, Hubert [2020]. Reading Max Weber's Sociology of Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

94. Trubek, David [1972]. Max Weber on Law and the Rise of Capitalism. Wisconsin Law Review (3): 720-753.

95. Tyan, Emile [1955]. Judicial Organization. In. Khadduri, Majid - Liebesny, Herbert (eds.). Law in the Middle East. Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 236-278.

96. Van Zanden, Jan Luiten - Buringh, Eltjo - Bosker, Maarten [2012]. The Rise and Decline of European Parliaments, 1189-1789. The Economic History Review 65 (3): 835-861. CrossRef

97. Von Jhering, Rudolph [1888]. Der Geist des Römanischen Recht auf Verschiedenen Stufen seiner Entwicklung 3 (5). Leizig: Breitkopf und Hartel.

98. Weber, Max [1922]. Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Grundriss der verstehenden Soziologie. Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck.

99. Weber, Max [1930/1958]. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Translated by Talcott Parson. New York: Scribners.

100. Weber, Max [1927]. General Economic History. Translated by Frank Knight. New York: Greenberg.

101. Weber, Max [1951]. The Religion of China. Translation by Hans H. Gerth with an Introduction by C. K. Yang. New York: Free Press.

102. Weber, Max [1954]. On Law in Economy and Society. Edited, translated and annotated by Max Rheinstein with Edward Shils. New York: Simon and Schuster.

103. Weber, Max [1963]. The Sociology of Religion by Max Weber. Translated by Ephraim Fischoff. Introduction by Talcott Parsons. Boston: Beacon Press.

104. Weber, Max [1978]. Economy and Society. Translated and edited by Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich. Berkeley: University of California Press.

105. Weber, Max [2003]. The History of Commercial Partnerships in the Middle Ages. The First English Edition of Weber's Prelude to the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism and Economy and Society. Translated and Introduced by Lutz Kaelber. Lanham, Md: Roman & Littlefield.

106. Weber, Max [2004]. Prefatory Remarks to the Collected Essays in the Sociology of Religion. In. The Essential Weber. A Reader. Translated and edited by Sam Whimster. Oxfordshire: Routledge, pp. 101-112.

107. Weber, Max [2010]. Gesamtausgabe, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft I/22-3, Rechts. Edited by Werner Gephart and Siegfried Hermes. Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr.

108. Wieacker, Franz [1995]. A History of Private Law in Europe with Particular Reference to Germany. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.

109. Williston, Samuel [1888]. History of the Law of Business Corporations Before 1800. Harvard Law Review 2 (3): 105-124. CrossRef

110. Whimster, Sam [2012]. The Coming of Age of the Max Weber Gesamtausgabe. Max Weber Studies 12 (1): 7-12. CrossRef

111. Whimster, Sam [2017]. Max Weber's Roman Agrarian History: Jurisprudence, Property, Civilization. In. Gephart, G. Werner - Witte, Daniel (eds.). Rechts als Kultur? Beiträge zu Max Webers Soziologie des Recht. Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, pp. 229-278. CrossRef

112. Wikipedia: The Sociology of Law. 16. 2. 2025 (en.wikipedia.org).

113. Wolff, H. J. [1951]. Roman Law. A Historical Introduction. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

114. Wortman, Richard S. [1976]. The Development of a Russian Legal Consciousness. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

115. Wyman-Landgraf, Umar F [2013]. Malik in Medina. Islamic Legal Reasoning in the Formative Period. Leiden: Brill.