Roger Cotterrell advocates a broad interdisciplinary approach to law and legal theory. The title of one of his well-known articles is programmatic: 'Why Must Legal Ideas be Interpreted Sociologically?' Similarly, his book The Politics ofJurisprudence can be read as an attempt to understand legal theories sociologically - an approach that makes sense of seemingly outdated and unattractive positions in light of the historical conditions of their time. Although Cotterrell's 'strongest intellectual allegiance is to sociology of law, [he] gradually felt dissatisfied with the lack of concern of much legal sociology with any need to engage with legal philosophy' (Cotterrell 2008: 20). His general intellectual programme is nicely expressed in the following statement: 'Legal philosophy and legal sociology are co-workers in a common enterprise oflegal explanation' (Cotterrell 2006: 29).

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hdl.handle.net/1765/76902
Erasmus School of Law

Taekema, S., & van der Burg, W. (2014). Towards a Fruitful Cooperation between Legal Philosophy, Legal Sociology and Doctrinal Research. In Law, Society and Community: Socio-Legal Essays in Honour of Roger Cotterell (pp. 129–145). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1765/76902