Legitimacy of law and the expertise of public sociology

This article endorses a two-pronged idea of legislative legitimacy, whereby such legitimacy depends on the freedom of a community to represent their interests (in distinction to opinions) and legal standards are embraced the community as authentic for their circumstances. However, since the essence of this approach to legitimacy is community interest-representation, it is inward-looking, which may often perpetuate community biases, myopic visions, and restrictive worldviews. In order to overcome this inward-looking tendency and situate the community’s experiences within the broader socio-political narrative, it is incumbent that lawmaking deliberations take into account “outside” independent opinion. Public sociology could be an epistemological basis to independent narratives, which does not subsume the community worldview, but rearticulate the community position in a discursive narrative. At the same time, public sociology avoids producing a conclusive “expert opinion” (as in judicial decisions) that may supersede community reflections. Accordingly, public sociology could be an ally in legitimate lawmaking in plural societies.