In his lectures at the London School of Economics, Karl Popper said he hoped that we students would try out his philosophy in the various fields into which we moved. The career opportunities available to me in 1950 took me into the area of overlap between social anthropology and sociology. Several years of research and teaching passed, during which time I saw little opportunity to draw on Popper’s advice until, in 1957, I met Joseph Agassi. The subsequent story has, necessarily, to be autobiographical, but it might have a wider import.

The chapter opens the collection with a tour d’horizon of the origins, lifetime and experience of implementing the treaty from the perspective of a CERD member. It argues that the treaty ought to be considered a significant step forward in the extension of the rule of law.

Ralph Grillo, 2015 Muslim Families, Politics and the Law. A Legal Industry in Multicultural Britain. Farnham: Ashgate, xvi + 337 pp. £75 (hardback) ISBN 978-1-4724-5121-7 John R Bowen, 2010 Can Islam Be French? Pluralism And Pragmatism in a Secularist State, Princeton: Princeton University Press, xi + 230 pp. $23.95 (paperback) ISBN978-0691-13283-9 John R Bowen, 2012 Blaming Islam. Cambridge: MIT Press, 144 pp. $15.95 (paperback) ISBN 978262017589

The authors' new theoretical framework' rests on their acceptance of ordinary language constructs. This leads them to an essentialized conception of race. It is not a true theory.

The study of social policy is sometimes separated from the study of sociology on grounds of convenience. The two disciplines can be differentiated on intellectual grounds if a distinction is drawn between practical knowledge and theoretical knowledge. The study of social policy centres upon the development and application of practical knowledge, in which ordinary language is employed. The study of sociology centres upon the pursuit of theoretical knowledge, and this requires the development of a technical language.