Law as a Social Institution: The Implications for Legal Theory (a debate)

Many legal theorists agree that law is a social creation, and that the institutions of law differ between times and places. But what does this mean for legal theorists? What is, or should, be their starting point; what should be the focus of their studies (diversity or commonality, for example); what can, or should, be the methodology (what place is there for consideration of empirical material, for example); and what, after all, is the purpose?
Two legal theorists who have thought deeply, and sometimes disagreed, about these issues have been invited to address these questions and share their views.
  
Participants are encouraged to read in advance some of the speakers' recent work. Particularly recommended are:

• Gardner, John. Law as a Leap of Faith (OUP, 2012), chapter 11
• Lacey, Nicola. 'Institutionalising Responsibility: Implications for Jurisprudence' Jurisprudence 4: 1