This course focuses upon theoretical perceptions of society and how these perceptions contribute to one's understanding of law and its role within society. The course traces classical approaches to society and law by focusing on works of Marx, Weber and Durkheim. These approaches broadly incorporate different takes on economy's role in determining the function of law within societies. In the second part of the course, liberal perspectives on society is contrasted with accounts that challenge the liberal and the democratic outlook. The course delineates problematic aspects of these challenges and then moves onto consider the postmodern schools of thought. By adopting a critical outlook and by questioning conventional wisdom readily accepted heretofore, the postmodern approach rejects normative narratives and opens room for the rethinking of societal concepts and law's changing relation with such concepts.