Abstract
Legal pluralism may be simply defined as the development of a number of different legal traditions within a given sovereign territory. Legal pluralism is often held to be a challenge to legal centralism, a legal doctrine claiming that the state has a monopoly over law making in its sovereign space. Opponents of state centralism based on state sovereignty and a legal monopoly often regard it as an ideology rather than a legal doctrine. The modern critique of legal centralism is associated with an influential article (‘What is Legal Pluralism?’) by John Griffith (1986), but the origin of the theory of legal pluralism goes back to Eugen Ehrlich’s Fundamental Principles of the Sociology of Law that was published in 1913. In many societies legal pluralism is now related to the recognition of indigenous traditional laws and, consequently, it is often referred to as ‘Unofficial Law.’ Studies of native traditions—such as Llewellyn and Hoebel’s The Cheyenne Way (1941)—have influenced recognition of the importance of custom in the normative foundation of law and thence the legal order of society. The debate about legal pluralism is also closely associated with theories of multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism (de Sousa Santos and Rodriguez-Garavito 2005). These debates around pluralism raise a host of difficult conceptual issues, including the problem of defining law itself. Before turning to some of these vexed definitional issues, we should start with a brief consideration of the so-called ‘legal centralism’ position.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Boyd, M. (2004). Dispute resolution in family law: Protecting choice, promoting inclusion. Executive summary. Ontario Ministry of Attorney General. http://www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca/english/about/pubs/boyd/
Center for Security Policy. (2011). Shariah law and American State Courts: An assessment of State Appellate Court cases. Occasional Paper Series. Washington. http://shariahinamericancourts.com/
Charney, J. (1993). Universal international law. American Journal of International Law, 87(4), 529–551.
Charney, J. (Ed.). (2002). International maritime boundaries. Dordrecht: Springer. 2 volumes.
Clarke, K. M. (2009). Fictions of justice: The International Criminal Court and the challenge of legal pluralism in Sub-Saharan Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cohen, J. L. (2012). Globalization and sovereignty: Rethinking legality, legitimacy, and constitutionalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
de Sousa Santos, B. (1995). Toward a new common sense: Law, science and politics in paradigmatic transition. New York: Routledge.
de Sousa Santos, B., & Rodriguez-Garavito, C. A. (Eds.). (2005). Law and globalization from below: Towards a cosmopolitan legality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ehrlich, E. (2001 [1936]). Fundamental principles of the sociology of law. New Brunswick: Transaction.
Griffith, J. (1986). What is legal pluralism? Journal of Legal Pluralism, 24, 1–55.
Hallaq, W. (2009). An introduction to Islamic law. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hart, H. L. A. (1977). Is law a system of rules? In R. M. Dworkin (Ed.), The philosophy of law (pp. 38–65). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hosen, N. (2007). Shari’a and constitutional reform in Indonesia. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
Joppke, C., & Torpey, J. (2013). The legal integration of Islam: A transatlantic comparison. Boston: Harvard University Press.
Kamaludeen, M. N., Pereira, A., & Turner, B. S. (2010). Muslims in Singapore: Piety, politics and policies. London: Routledge.
Kemper, M., & Reinkowski, M. (Eds.). (2005). Rechtspluralismus in der Islamische Welt. Berlin: Peter de Gruyter.
Llewellyn, K., & Hoebel, E. A. (1941). The Cheyenne way: Conflict and case law in primitive jurisprudence. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Neklen, D. (1984). Law in action or living law? Back to the beginning in sociology of law. Legal Studies, 4, 157–174.
Pound, R. (1966). An introduction to the philosophy of law. New Haven/London: Yale University Press.
Pound, R. (2009). Fundamental principles of the sociology of law (pp. lxi–lxviii). New Brunswick: Transaction.
Sieder, R. (2002). Recognising indigenous law and the politics of state formation in Mesoamerica. In R. Sieder (Ed.), Multiculturalism in Latin America: Indigenous rights, diversity and democracy (pp. 184–207). Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
Tamanaha, B. Z. (1997). Realistic socio-legal theory: Pragmatism and a social theory of law. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Tamanaha, B. Z. (2008). Understanding legal pluralism: Past to present, local to global. Sydney Law Review, 30, 375–411.
Teubner, G. (Ed.). (1997). Global law without a state. Dartmouth: Aldershot.
Turner, B. S., & Arslan, Z. B. (2011). Shari’a and legal pluralism in the West. European Journal of Social Theory, 14(1), 139–159.
Turner, B. S., & Richardson, J. T. (2012). Islam and the problems of liberal democracy. In M. S. Berger (Ed.), Applying Shari’a in the West (pp. 47–64). Leiden: Leiden University Press.
Twining, W. (2000). Globalisation and legal theory. London: Butterworth.
Voorhoeve, M. (Ed.). (2012). Family law in Islam: Divorce, marriage and women in the Muslim world. London: I.B. Taurus.
Weber, M. (1978). Economy and society: An outline of interpretive sociology. Berkeley: University of California Press. 2 volumes.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Turner, B.S., Possamai, A. (2015). Introduction: Legal Pluralism and Shari’a . In: Possamai, A., Richardson, J., Turner, B. (eds) The Sociology of Shari’a: Case Studies from around the World. Boundaries of Religious Freedom: Regulating Religion in Diverse Societies, vol 1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09605-6_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09605-6_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-09604-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-09605-6
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)