1 “Riders on the storm” (Doors): sociology and law in face of the empire 1 * António Pedro Dores The social sciences seem apathetic and the law too slow when it comes to the most serious difficulties the world is going through, when it comes to violence, war and the destruction of nature. The Gordian knot of the question is the empire. This paper points out the advantages of recognizing human nature as the primary base of civilizations. The understanding of empire should not be reduced to imperialism, or struggles between civilizations. We must resume the study of the ties between humanity and nature, namely that of the self. These resulted from the evolution of life on Earth. The separation between natural sciences and social sciences hinders the development of centrifugal sciences, the consideration of the symbiotic relationships between nature and humanity. The concept of empire must be rooted in human nature rather than being cantered on power. Finally, the paper looks at how social struggles can identify negative aspects of the empire in order to overcome them, to the extent that overcoming them might be possible. Keywords: Sociology; Law; empire. “Riders on the storm” (Doors): sociologia e direito face ao império As ciências sociais parecem apáticas e o direito demasiado demorado quando se trata das mais graves dificuldades que o mundo atravessa, quando se trata de violência, de guerra e da destruição da natureza. O nó górdio da questão é o império. O artigo assinala as vantagens de reconhecer a natureza humana como a base constitutiva das civilizações. Não se deve reduzir o entendimento de império às lutas entre civilizações. Há que não perder de vista as relações entre a humanidade e a natureza. Estas resultaram da evolução 1 The translation/proofreading of this paper was provided by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) through the funding of the R&D Unit UIDB/03126/2020.