Danish judges in the 20th century : A Socio-Legal Study

Are judges losing power to other professions in modern Danish society? How are judges related to other parts of elite society and other parts of the state administration? This socio-legal study, which was submitted as a doctoral thesis in sociology, shows that other professional groups have replaced judges as legal decision-makers in some instances. At the same time the judiciary has increased its internal differentiation and stratification. Judges of the higher courts are increasingly closer related to other parts of state administration and to academia. And too, the judiciary has strengthened and expanded its symbolic power by developing new forms of interpretation. The study differentiates itself from other socio-legal studies in Scandinavia by combining a perspective of how jurists and policymakers perceive and apply law with a sociological perspective on power relations structuring the field of judges.