Legalise it! The rising place of law in French sociologytextjournalArticleIsraëlLioraaut10.1017/S1744552313000013http://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-law-in-context/article/legalise-it-the-rising-place-of-law-in-french-sociology/D4CE75C78F73D7400491D309F9EBC8C8By highlighting a large number of recent studies mainly based on empirical methods, the aim of this paper is to emphasise and illustrate the rising influence of legal sociology in France today, and the interesting results produced. More generally, it is noteworthy to emphasise the growing importance of law and legal domains as a topic of great interest in French social sciences in general. It remains an open question whether this trend is linked to the ‘judicialisation’ of French politics and society and its influence over the academic field, or, alternatively, to the growing capacity of social scientists to resist the monopolistic claim of French academic lawyers on the analysis of legal subjects and to develop their own. Nevertheless, those trends converge towards a better knowledge of French legality, relevant from a national perspective, as well as to assess its contribution to socio-legal knowledge in general.enCambridge Corejournal922622782013/06continuing1744-5523, 1744-5531International Journal of Law in Context