Content

The course is subdivided into two main parts:

• The first part of the course is primarily introductory:

In this first part, the course gives an overview of basis research topics and orientations in legal anthropology. We will discuss i.a. the problem of the definition of legal culture, epistemological apriorisms in anthropology, the status of knowledge gained through fieldwork research, the study of living law, dispute resolution mechanisms, etc. 

The studies selected (monographs and contributions to collective volume) will be analyzed in line with some of the main theoretical perspectives - within anthropology - on the relation between law and society: the process analysis in legal proceedings, 'trouble-cases' studies, recording of folk law, etc. In a chronological sequence the main anthropological approaches to the study of legal systems will be discussed.

Though various concepts of culture and different schools of thought will be studied - the course provides an analysis both of early pioneering and of contemporary work of legal anthropologists - the approach is analytical rather than encyclopedic. The purpose is to arrive at a better synthesis of the major presuppositions concerning the formation and the continuation of legal systems in different cultural settings, rural and urban, non-western and western.

• The second part of the course focuses on special topics:

Theoretical issues in the history of legal anthropology have arisen largely because of practical issues requiring action: effective government in colonial and post-colonial settings; minority and indigenous rights; the practicability of the ‘rule of law’ ; legal transplants; codification of customs; legal pluralism; alternative dispute settlement mechanisms; etc.

The purpose of the second part of the course is to enable students to explore both the theoretical and real-life implications of questions that are i.a. directly or indirectly related to the encounter between state and non-state legal systems, between Western-European and non-European legal cultures, in colonial and post-colonial international developments. In numerous settler societies conflicts have arisen over group rights (in particular, land ownership) and the concept of individual property. In post-colonial societies lawyers struggle with the question what validity to grant to customs that clash with State law, and that regard in particular gender issues and the rights of the (individual) person, with problems also of clashing concepts of crime and punishment, etc.

The last sessions of the course will entirely be devoted to contemporary issues of legal anthropological research: claims and rights of indigenous people and minority groups in several parts of the world; the status and the protection of transnational communities; transnationalism and human rights protection; the revival of religious laws in a post-secular world context; contentious practices (such as child marriages, bodily marking, feud, etc.).

The objectives are to enable students to arrive at a better analysis of today's issues of legal anthropology: legal pluralism in various multi-cultural settings; the impact of colonization on legal systems; post-colonial transplants of legal systems;  the balancing of indigenous, minority and state laws; cultural defense, etc. The examples attempt at exploring the variables that are interwoven in the development of law and various concepts of law - and why this is the case - until today.

Students will also get a chance to meet with visiting lecturers (fieldworkers), actually practising legal anthropology.

Course material

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Format: more information

The students are expected to prepare for the lecture and discussions by reading the materials in advance. Students will be given information on additional references as the course program proceeds.