Designed specifically to be accessible to beginning-level students, this text offers an exceptionally straightforward approach to a complex subject. It examines as a central theme the intertwining relationship between law and society—with emphasis on the relationship of social conditions, social ideas, and people to the creation, interpretation, and use of law. These three concepts are further used to illustrate how law is formulated in a cross-cultural context, as well as within the areas of gender, race, and social class.