scholarly journals Beyond Relativism: Where Is Political Power in Legal Pluralism?

2008 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gad Barzilai
Keyword(s):  
Political Power ◽  
Legal Pluralism ◽  
Theoretical Concept ◽  
Cultural Relativism ◽  
Law And Society ◽  
Nation State ◽  
State Law ◽  
Dynamic Interactions ◽  
Nation States

Both decentralization of state law and cultural relativism have been fundamentally embedded in legal pluralism. As a scholarly trend in law and society, it has insightfully challenged the underpinnings of analytical positivist jurisprudence. Nevertheless, a theoretical concept of political power has significantly been missing in research on the plurality of legal practices in various jurisdictions. This Article aims to critically offer a theoretical concept of political power that takes legal decentralization and cultural relativism seriously and yet points to how and where we should look into political power, assuming that legal pluralism itself may be a strategy of elites and nation-states amid globalization. First, the Article explores the contributions of legal pluralism, and its limits, in intellectually revolting against analytical positivist jurisprudence. Second, it explicates why a concept of political power has been missing, and why such a concept is required for better comprehension of legal pluralism. Third, it calls for a look into three sites of political power in the praxis of legal pluralism: politics of identities, non-ruling communities, and neo-liberal globalization. Last, the Article constructs a concept of political-legal transformations that enables us to unveil political power in the context of de-centralized legal pluralities. Power is produced in, resides in and is generated in the dynamic interactions between nation-states, localities and global agents. Transformative relations along these dimensions allow the nation-state to forfeit some elements of power, both in economics and in law, but they also enable it to maintain some essential ingredients of political power that are often veiled in the rhetoric of globalized pluralism.

scholarly journals Ist Außenpolitik noch Außenpolitik … und was ist eigentlich Innenpolitik?

2000 ◽  
Vol 30 (118) ◽  
pp. 123-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Messner
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Coordinate System ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Global Problems ◽  
Core Elements

Globalization processes are emphatically changing the coordinate system of politics. The „epoch of the nation state“ is drawing to its end. Dirk Messner discusses four core elements involved in the change of the architecture of politics in the „era of globalism“: (1) the rapidly growing differentiation of the foreign relations of nation states as an indicator of the erosion of the classical bounds of domestic and foreign policy; (2) the trend toward the formation of a world society; (3) the growing density of transboundary networks and global problems that lead not only to an increase of international relations based on interdependency (a phenomenon long familiar to us) but to an erosion of the „internal sovereignty“ of nation states, which is turning the rules of international and global politics upside down; (4) the change of the form of political power under the conditions of globalization.

Buddhist Studies beyond the Nation-State

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard K. Payne
Keyword(s):  
Political Power ◽  
Ethnic Identities ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Buddhist Studies ◽  
Nation States ◽  
State Boundaries ◽  
Religious Cultures

This essay examines a variety of dysfunctional consequences of employing modern nation-states as the default organizing category for Buddhist studies regardless of the period being studied. Two of these consequences are directly related to one another: conflating contemporary nation-states with religious cultures, and equating religious and ethnic identities. Additionally, the organizing category tends to privilege some particular tradition as representative of or the essence of Buddhism in a specific nation-state, marking that tradition as uniquely authoritative. More broadly, research is constrained within the boundaries of nation-states, and the continuity of Buddhist traditions that cross nation-state boundaries is obscured. At the same time artificial continuities are retrospectively imposed, and the tradition comes to be defined by forms located at the center of political power. The work of four contemporary scholars is discussed as exemplifying the arguments for and value of moving away from nation-state categories. Consideration is given to the formative role of the training of missionaries and other agents of empire in the institutionalization of nation-state categories.

With or Without You: Qing, Li, Fa, and Legal Pluralism in China

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 88-118
Author(s):  
Qian Liu
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Legal Pluralism ◽  
Urban China ◽  
Legal Mobilization ◽  
Law And Society ◽  
State Law ◽  
Rural Villages ◽  
Chinese Law ◽  
Legal Transplantation

Abstract The concept of legal pluralism was introduced to China in the mid-1990s to address the conflict between state law and local norms and customs. More than two decades after its introduction, the scope of legal pluralism in China has shifted to the coexistence and interaction between state law and nonstate orders. In this article, I review theoretical discussions and empirical studies on legal pluralism in China. The existing studies on legal pluralism focus mostly on rural villages, which marginalizes the lived experience of urban residents who are also caught in China’s rapid legal transplantation in recent decades. At the same time, law and society scholars who study labor dispute resolution in urban China tend to frame the questions as legal mobilization, rather than legal pluralism. The term qingli 情理[commonsense feelings of justice] is a common theme underlying the scholarship of legal pluralism and legal mobilization in China, and thus it has the potential to bring them together and bridge the findings of the two bodies of scholarship. This article contributes to the literature on Chinese law and society by demonstrating the role that qingli plays in bridging different areas of sociolegal studies.

6 Is there a legitimation crisis of the nation-state?

2005 ◽  
Vol 13 (S1) ◽  
pp. 119-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
ACHIM HURRELMANN ◽  
ZUZANA KRELL-LALUHOVÁ ◽  
ROLAND LHOTTA ◽  
FRANK NULLMEIER ◽  
STEFFEN SCHNEIDER
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Political System ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Public Communication ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Effect Relationship ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Democratic Systems

It is widely accepted that internationalization and the increasing loss of parliamentary control over political power challenge the legitimacy of national democratic systems and their core institutions. We first present results from a study of public communication, which, when examined in the context of theories of legitimation, indicate that these processes do not necessarily lead to the erosion or breakdown of popular support for the nation state. The idea that there is a linear cause-and-effect relationship is overly simple, and a more detailed analysis is called for. Legitimation of a political system through public communication is a back-and-forth process which is determined by the system's specific institutional arrangements and by the fortuitous twists and turns of public debate. Nation states have more extensive, diverse and deeply rooted sources of legitimation than is often assumed.

Ahmad Ibrahim Memorial Lecture; GLOBALIZATION, SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY, LEGAL PLURALISM: CAN STATE LAW SURVIVE?

2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon R Woodman
Keyword(s):  
Religious Diversity ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Legal Pluralism ◽  
Memorial Lecture ◽  
State Law ◽  
Small Measure ◽  
Education Association ◽  
Deep Thought

It is a great honour to be invited to give this 8th Ahmad Ibrahim Memorial Lecture. I met Ahmad Ibrahim several times during his period as founding Dean of the Kulliyyah of Laws of the International Islamic University Malaysia, when we both attended conferences of the Commonwealth Legal Education Association in Cumberland Lodge, Windsor, Britain. He was immensely respected in the field of legal education in the Commonwealth; his interventions in our discussions were fewer than those of some colleagues, who liked to talk at lenght on every occassion and about every topic, but when he made comments they were always efective, being evidently based on long experience and deep thought. I have since read some of his work and learnt from it - as will appear , in small measure, from some references i make later in this lecture.

scholarly journals Exemplary Ethical Communities. A New Concept for a Livable Anthropocene

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5582
Author(s):  
Daniele Conversi
Keyword(s):  
Large Body ◽  
State System ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Sustainable Communities ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Social Ecological Systems ◽  
Track Record ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Global Environmental

This article argues that we need to look at living examples provided by non-state communities in various regions of the world that are, perhaps unwittingly, contributing to the maintenance of the Earth’s optimal thermal balance. These fully sustainable communities have been living outside the mainstream for centuries, even millennia, providing examples in the global struggle against the degradation of social–ecological systems. They have all, to varying degrees, embraced simple forms of living that make them ‘exemplary ethical communities’ (EECs)—human communities with a track record of sustainability related to forms of traditional knowledge and the capacity to survive outside the capitalist market and nation-state system. The article proceeds in three steps: First, it condenses a large body of research on the limits of the existing nation-state system and its accompanying ideology, nationalism, identifying this institutional–ideological complex as the major obstacle to tackling climate change. Second, alternative social formations that could offer viable micro-level and micro-scale alternatives are suggested. These are unlikely to identify with existing nation-states as they often form distinct types of social communities. Taking examples from hunter-gatherer societies and simple-living religious groups, it is shown how the protection and maintenance of these EECs could become the keystone in the struggle for survival of humankind and other forms of life. Finally, further investigation is called for, into how researchers can come forward with more examples of actually existing communities that might provide pathways to sustainability and resistance to the looming global environmental catastrophe.

International Human Rights, Religious Pluralism and the Future of Chieftaincy in Ghana

Exchange ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 360-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abamfo Atiemo
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Religious Commitment ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Future ◽  
New Nation ◽  
Religious Reasons ◽  
Customary Practices

AbstractA revolutionary development that resulted from Africa's experience of colonialism was the emergence of the nation-state made up of previously separate ethnic states. By the end of the colonial period the rulers of these ethnic states — the chiefs — had lost most of their real political and judicial powers to the political leaders of the new nation-states. But in spite of the loss of effective political power the chiefs continued to wield moral influence over members of their ethnic groups. The limited reach of the nation-state in the post-colonial era has also meant a dependence on the chiefs, in many cases, for aspects of local governance. This, for example, is the case of Ghana. However, in the modern context of religious pluralism the intimate bond between the chiefs and the traditional religion exacerbates tension in situations of conflict between people's loyalty to the traditional state and their religious commitment. In some cases, chiefs invoke customary laws in attempt to enforce sanctions against individuals who refuse to observe certain customary practices for religious reasons. But this has implications for the human rights of citizens. This article discusses the implications of this situation for the future of chieftaincy as well as prospects for the protection of the human rights of citizens who for religious reasons choose to stay away from certain communal customary practices.

Constitutional Analysis: A Proclamation of Children's Right to Protection, Provision, and Participation

2010 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Tisdale Driskill ◽  
Paige LeForce DeFalco ◽  
Jill Holbert Lang ◽  
Janette Habashi
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Development Programme ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Developmental Index ◽  
Nations Development ◽  
Constitutional Analysis

AbstractThe study of children's images as delineated in constitutional documents highlights the historical transitions that have occurred within and among countries, as manifested in the Convention of the Rights of the Child. As such, content analysis was administered to examine constitutional and amendment documents of 179 nation-states listed and recognized by the United Nations Development Programme in the Human Developmental Index. This analysis produced quantitative and qualitative data in which it described the ranking of each country and it's postulation toward children's protection, provision and participation as outlined by CRC. The findings provide greater understanding of the nation-state posture towards children as active rights bearers.

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