Human Rights Encounter Legal Pluralism: Normative and Empirical Approaches

This collection of essays interrogates how human rights law and practice acquire meaning in relation to legal pluralism, i.e., 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, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, the contributions in this volume analyze how different configurations of legal pluralism interact with the legal and social life of human rights. At the same time, the authors inquire 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. (Series: Oñati International Series in Law and Society) [Subject: Human Rights Law, Public International Law, Socio-Legal Studies]