This collection of essays interrogates how human rights law and practice acquire meaning in relation to legal pluralism, ie, the co-existence of more than one regulatory order in a same social field. As a social phenomenon, legal pluralism exists in all societies. As a legal construction, it is characteristic of particular regions, such as post-colonial contexts. Drawing on experiences from Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe, the contributions in this volume analyse how different configurations of legal pluralism interplay with the legal and the social life of human rights. At the same time, they enquire into how human rights law and practice influence interactions that are subject to regulation by more than one normative regime. Aware of numerous misunderstandings and of the mutual suspicion that tends to exist between human rights scholars and anthropologists, the volume includes contributions from experts in both disciplines and intends to build bridges between normative and empirical theory.

Human rights have transformed the way in which we conceive the place of the individual within the community and in relation to the state in a vast array of disciplines, including law, philosophy, politics, sociology, geography. The published output on human rights over the last five decades has been enormous, but has remained tightly bound to a notion of human rights as dialectically linking the individual and the state. Because of human rights’ dogged focus on the state and its actions, they have very seldom attracted the attention of legal pluralists. Indeed, some may have viewed the two as simply incompatible or relating to wholly distinct phenomena. This collection of essays is the first to bring together authors with established track records in the fields of legal pluralism and human rights, to explore the ways in which these concepts can be mutually reinforcing, delegitimizing, or competing. The essays reveal that there is no facile conclusion to reach but that the question opens avenues which are likely to be mined for years to come by those interested in how human rights can affect the behaviour of individuals and institutions.

'Human Rights and Legal Pluralism' opens with an article on how to integrate human rights into customary and religious legal systems generally before looking at a 'tribal' women's forum in South Rajastan, customary justice in Sierra Leone, indigenous justice systems in Latin America and deep legal pluralism in South Africa.

This collection of essays interrogates how human rights law and practice acquire meaning in relation to legal pluralism, ie, the co-existence of more than one regulatory order in a same social field. As a social phenomenon, legal pluralism exists in all societies. As a legal construction, it is characteristic of particular regions, such as post-colonial contexts. Drawing on experiences from Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe, the contributions in this volume analyse how different configurations of legal pluralism interplay with the legal and the social life of human rights. At the same time, they enquire into how human rights law and practice influence interactions that are subject to regulation by more than one normative regime. Aware of numerous misunderstandings and of the mutual suspicion that tends to exist between human rights scholars and anthropologists, the volume includes contributions from experts in both disciplines and intends to build bridges between normative and empirical theory.

Contents Luigi Ferrajoli: Past and Future of the State under Law u Mauro Zamboni: oRechtsstaato: What is it that Swedish development assistance, organisatons oexporto? u Hans Gribnau: Legal Principles and Legislative Instrumentalism u Maria Jose Falcon y Tella: Justified Illegality: The Question of Civil Disobedience u Hideo Sasakura: How should we discuss the Right of Resistance today? u K. Papageorgiou: Nations, persons, rights and responsibilities u M.N.S. Sellers: The Right to Secede u Stephan Kirste: Constitution and Time u Nicholas Aroney: Towards a General Theory of the Formation and Amendment of Federal Constitutions: A Comparative Study u Adriaan Anderson: Prosecuting Crime in a Constitutional State: The Recent South African Experience u Luis Villar-Borda: The Role of the Constitutional Court in the Advance of Law in a Developing Country u Marcela Forero: Colombia: a Multisovereignty State u Samuli Hurri: What of Tomorrow's Citizenship? Universal and Politics in Hannah Arendt and Jurgen Habermas u Marcelo Campos Galuppo: Constitutional Hermeneutics and Pluralism u Francoise Michaut: Pluralism in Law in Robert Cover's Writings u E. A. Huppes-Cluysenaer: Informal Rules do not Exist u Niels F. van Manen: The legal recognition of distinct communities u Peter Koller: Law and Virtue u Carl Lebeck: Coercion, co-ordination and normativity - towards a refined distinction between positive and negative rights u Sheldon Wein: Moral Pluralism and the Rule of Law.

"Abstract Global legal pluralism has become one of the leading analytical frameworks for understanding and conceptualizing law in the twenty-first century"--