Staff at the LSE Law Department have traditionally approached the law not merely instrumentally but as a distinct area of thought and a social phenomenon. Research in the department covers foundational questions such as what the law is; whether and how it is connected to other sets of rules or norms; what legal reasoning is and how it works; how the law operates as a means of social integration or social control. Staff also conduct research on the intellectual history of the idea of law as well as the theoretical foundations of various legal fields. Legal philosophy and sociology are taught both on undergraduate and postgraduate levels.