Law against the State: Ethnographic Forays into Law's Transformations (Cambridge Studies in Law and Society) - Softcover

Eckert, Julia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1107471079 ISBN 13: 9781107471078

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2014

Synopsis

This collection of rich, empirically grounded case studies investigates the conditions and consequences of 'juridification' - the use of law by ordinary individuals as a form of protest against 'the state'. Starting from the actual practices of claimants, these case studies address the translation and interpretation of legal norms into local concepts, actions and practices in a way that highlights the social and cultural dynamism and multivocality of communities in their interaction with the law and legal norms. The contributors to this volume challenge the image of homogeneous and primordially norm-bound cultures that has been (unintentionally) perpetuated by some of the more prevalent treatments of law and culture. This volume highlights the heterogeneous geography of law and the ways boundaries between different legal bodies are transcended in struggles for rights. Contributions include case studies from South Africa, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Turkey, India, Papua New Guinea, Suriname, the Marshall Islands and Russia.

About this title

Book Description:

A collection of rich ethnographically grounded case studies which examine how ordinary people across the globe use the law as a form of protest against 'the state'. This process transforms both the law and the people using it and demonstrates that law's enabling and constraining potentials interact in unexpected ways.

About the Author:

Julia Eckert is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Bern and head of the research group 'Law against the State' at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale, Germany. Her research interests are in legal anthropology, the anthropology of the modern state, social movements, the anthropology of crime and punishment and changing notions of responsibility and justice.

Brian Donahoe is an independent researcher, writer and editor. From 2004 to 2010 he was postdoctoral research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany. His thematic interests include the dynamics of constructing, maintaining and asserting ethnic identity and indigeneity, and different approaches to guaranteeing indigenous rights to land.

Christian Strümpell is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University. His research interests are in the anthropology of labour, economic anthropology and political anthropology, with a regional focus on South Asia in general and the Indian state of Orissa.

Zerrin Özlem Biner is a research associate in the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge. Her research explores new ethnographic sites for the study of the state in documenting the experiences of minority citizens in post-conflict settings in contemporary Turkey.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1107471079
• ISBN 13: 9781107471078
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 306