In this work, Paul Kahn provides an examination of what it means to conduct a modern intellectual inquiry into the culture of law. He explains the shortcomings of legal scholarship and charts the way for the development of an entirely new intellectual discipline of law.

Belief in the rule of law characterizes our society, our political order, and even our identity as citizens. "The Cultural Study of Law" is the first full examination of what it means to conduct a modern intellectual inquiry into the culture of law. Paul Kahn outlines the tools necessary for such an inquiry by analyzing the concepts of time, space, citizen, judge, sovereignty, and theory within the culture of law's rule. Charting the way for the development of a new intellectual discipline, Paul Kahn advocates an approach that stands outside law's normative framework and looks at law as a way of life rather than as a set of rules.