Legal pluralism’s other : mythologizing modern law
Abstract
This article interrogates the concept of legal pluralism, as it currently tends to function within contemporary legal and historical scholarship. It argues that the concept of legal pluralism cannot 'liberate' positivist analytical legal theory from monist (municipal, state-centric etc.) straightjackets, but rather itself presumes the primacy of centralized state-issued law - at the same time as masking that primacy within a pluralist discourse. The concept of legal pluralism should be properly understood – and analyzed – as part of the mythology of modern law, not as an alternative to it. The first two sections develop this argument via a critical tour of legal-pluralist historiography, focusing on 1986 to the present-day. The final section then moves on to explore what is at stake for the pre-modern historian when they apply (modern) concepts of legal pluralism to try to explain the multiplicity of legal orders that they invariably encounter in their own source material.
Citation
Humfress , C 2023 , ' Legal pluralism’s other : mythologizing modern law ' , Law and History Review , vol. FirstView . https://doi.org/10.1017/S0738248023000172
Publication
Law and History Review
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0738-2480Type
Journal article
Collections
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