Toward Anthropology of "Making of Law"

Abstract

Legal anthropology has produced numerous studies on law and society, mainly focusing on the significance of customs and social norms other than state law. Represented by legal pluralism in the 1980s, which claimed the coexistence of multiple legal systems in a society, it has successfully relativized the power of state law. However, its uneven emphasis on customary law may have narrowed and limited its research subjects. This article attempts to revitalize the original broader question of legal anthropology on law and society by reviewing recent ethnographies targeting professional and technical legal practice. It elucidates that the study of "making of law" as professional practice mediated by physical/technical devices suggests the new critical understanding of "what law is" or the relationship between state law and customs, as well as opening interdisciplinary dialogues with the studies of "law and development" and "nudges".