NCJ Number
115718
Journal
Law and Society Review Volume: 22 Issue: 5 Dated: (1988) Pages: 869-896
Date Published
1988
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This literature review suggests ways in which viewing sociolegal phenomena as plural expands the relevant research framework.
Abstract
'Legal pluralism' is generally defined as a situation in which two or more legal systems coexist in the same social field. Griffiths distinguishes between the 'social science' view of legal pluralism as an empirical state of affairs in society (the coexistence within a social group of legal orders that do not belong to a single 'system') and a 'juristic' view of legal pluralism as a particular problem of dual legal systems created when European countries established colonies that superimposed their legal systems on pre-existing systems. This literature review focuses on the 'social science' view of legal pluralism. The study first contracts classic legal pluralism and the new legal pluralism. Classic legal pluralism analyzes the intersections of indigenous and European law. The new legal pluralism affirms that plural normative orders are found in all societies. Such a view focuses research on the relationship between the official legal system and other forms of ordering that connect with but are separate from and dependent on the official system. Within this concept, the article defines terms that depict legal pluralism, i.e., folk law, indigenous law, state law, and lawyer's law. Other topics considered are (1) interactions between normative legal orders and (2) plural legalities and local knowledge. Implications of legal pluralism for future research are drawn. 116 references. For a comment on this article, see NCJ-115719.