The topical chapters in this cutting-edge collection at the intersection of comparative law and anthropology explore the mutually enriching insights and outlooks of the two fields. Comparative Law and Anthropology adopts a foundational approach to social and cultural issues and their resolution, rather than relying on unified paradigms of research or unified objects of study. Taken together, the contributions extend long-developing trends from legal anthropology to an anthropology of law and from externally imposed to internally generated interpretations of norms and processes of legal significance within particular cultures. The book's expansive conceptualization of comparative law encompasses not only its traditional geographical orientation, but also historical and jurisprudential dimensions. It is also noteworthy in blending the expertise of long-established, acclaimed scholars with new voices from a range of disciplines and backgrounds.

Essay from the year 2015 in the subject Law - Comparative Legal Systems, Comparative Law, , language: English, abstract: In developed countries, indigenous peoples are often portrayed as (noble) savages or as remnants from an other age. However, they are neither. While being different from the majority population, and all too often having been (and often continuing to be) oppressed, in recent years a change has become visible in the attitude towards indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples are first of all that, peoples - with their own cultures and histories. It is because of their particular lifestyle and relationship with an other culture, that they are seen as different. However, more and more indigenous peoples are taken more seriously in their own right. In this essay the research of indigenous legal norms by outsiders is investigated from the perspective of indigenous rights. Based on a premise of respect for indigenous norms, issues such as benefit sharing and access to research results are discussed, as well as research ethics.

Law and Anthropology, the latest volume in the Current Legal Issues series, offers an insight into the state of law and anthropology scholarship today. Focussing on the inter-connections between the two disciplines it also includes case studies from around the world.

The Oxford Handbook of Law and Anthropology is a ground-breaking collection of essays that provides an original and internationally framed conception of the historical, theoretical, and ethnographic interconnections of law and anthropology. Each of the chapters in the Handbook provides a survey of the current state of scholarly debate and an argument about the future direction of research in this dynamic and interdisciplinary field. The structure of the Handbook is animated by an overarching collective narrative about how law and anthropology have and should relate to each other as intersecting domains of inquiry that address such fundamental questions as dispute resolution, normative ordering, social organization, and legal, political, and social identity. The need for such a comprehensive project has become even more pressing as lawyers and anthropologists work together in an ever-increasing number of areas, including immigration and asylum processes, international justice forums, cultural heritage certification and monitoring, and the writing of new national constitutions, among many others. The Handbook takes critical stock of these various points of intersection in order to identify and conceptualize the most promising areas of innovation and sociolegal relevance, as well as to acknowledge the points of tension, open questions, and areas for future development.

This Reader offers a remarkable overview of the field of law and anthropology: its development, present, and potential future courses. Edited by a preeminent anthropologist, lawyer, and pioneer in the study of law & anthropology. Brings together classics of political thought and key contemporary work from social scientists and lawyers. Explores historical issues and more contemporary ones such as illegal migration, human rights, gender discrimination, political corruption, and reparations for injustices committed by previous regimes.

An introduction to the anthropology of law that explores the connections between law, politics, and technology From legal responsibility for genocide to rectifying past injuries to indigenous people, the anthropology of law addresses some of the crucial ethical issues of our day. Over the past twenty-five years, anthropologists have studied how new forms of law have reshaped important questions of citizenship, biotechnology, and rights movements, among many others. Meanwhile, the rise of international law and transitional justice has posed new ethical and intellectual challenges to anthropologists. Anthropology and Law provides a comprehensive overview of the anthropology of law in the post-Cold War era. Mark Goodale introduces the central problems of the field and builds on the legacy of its intellectual history, while a foreword by Sally Engle Merry highlights the challenges of using the law to seek justice on an international scale. The book’s chapters cover a range of intersecting areas including language and law, history, regulation, indigenous rights, and gender. For a complete understanding of the consequential ways in which anthropologists have studied, interacted with, and critiqued, the ways and means of law, Anthropology and Law is required reading.

These fourteen essays present an authoritative review of the current state of comparative legal studies. With backgrounds in law, political science, sociology, history and anthropology, the contributors examine comparative law's intellectual traditions; the strengths and failings of its methodologies; and, most importantly, future directions the subject is likely to take. This comprehensive study of the philosophical and methodological foundations of comparative law is a book with ideas and arguments every comparatist scholar is drawn to.