Abstract

Law cannot ensure its adherence, as the legal text itself is binding but forceless. Most legal theories root the force of law either in its enforcement by the state or in the proper justification of norms. As will be argued here, these descriptions do not provide a satisfactory framework to fully explain why law, in general, is “symbolically effective”. It will be shown how the “juridical field” is able to contribute to the acceptance of law in practice. The aim of this article therefore is to analyze the practice within the “juridical field”. This enables us to extrapolate some mechanisms that contribute to the force of law while not losing focus on law’s ambivalent entanglement with power structures.