Introduction. Sociology of law and Prison studies: The social uses of law within the prison’s legal field

This article examines the role of law and its social uses within the carceral field. Prisons are institutional settings saturated with official legal norms, yet their operative application is deeply shaped by the prison’s distinct social, symbolic and moral order. Introducing the contributions collected in this Special Issue, the article explores how law is practically mobilized, reinterpreted, or rendered ineffective in everyday prison life. It calls for an empirically grounded sociology of law that shifts attention from abstract legal frameworks to the situated practices through which legal norms are invoked, contested, or bypassed. Legal resources are thus conceptualized as part of a broader repertoire of normative tools deployed to exercise institutional control or articulate practices of resistance. By adopting a socio-legal perspective, the article aims to reframe the relationship between formal legal structures and the lived normative orders that emerge within carceral institutions. It contributes to bridging Prison Studies and the Sociology of Law by addressing fundamental questions about the role of law in highly regulated yet socially complex environments.