The present study is a test of Donald Black's (1976) The Behavior of Law. Accordingly, the degree of control exerted by the state upon the population is variable, therefore, susceptible to quantification. The quantity of law varies with five social conditions, namely, stratification, morphology, culture, organization, and informal social control. Expressed in a propositional format, Black argues that the law-society relationship is potentially applicable to the development of law across-space and over time. This claim also extends to micro and macro legal encounters regardless of the content of the legal matter, e.g., civil, criminal, conciliatory, or therapeutic. A 3-equation model that comprises a literal yet, methodologically sound interpretation of The Behavior of Law was constructed to test the validity of the propositions using United States time-series data, from 1948 to 1980. The extent to which fourteen social-condition indicators affect the operations of the state-controls was estimated for five law activities: legislative, police, litigious, judicial, and correctional. The results show from moderate to limited support of Black's propositions. The sensitivity of state organizations to respond to demands from the environment appears to be contingent on the particular bureaucratic interests of the agencies and their role-occupants