9. At the Heart of (Every?) Society? Reintegrating Legal Anthropology
into Social Anthropology
Convenors:
Franz von
Benda-Beckmann, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale
Werner Zips,
University of Vienna
Law is considered by lawyers and sociologists to be at the very center
of social integration in Western societies, whereas social anthropological
discourses regard law as marginal in Non-Western societies. The proposed
workshop seeks to challenge both the marginalization of legal arrangements and
discourses in social anthropology as well as the marginalization of legal
anthropology within social anthropology. Anthropology of law has much too long
remained a stepchild in anthropology, associated with a nearly exclusive focus
on processes of disputing and struggles over the definition of law, especially
in British social anthropology. The recent years, however, have witnessed a
revival, especially in German speaking countries, The Netherlands and
Scandinavia of a legal anthropology that addresses issues that are at the
forefront of anthropological research today and touch core issues of the
general theme of the EASA conference 2004. The organizers invite papers to
address one or more of the above topics, which should contribute to a
(re)integration of the anthropology of law into the mainstream of social
anthroplogy and relate to the following themes.
a.) legal pluralism as an outcome of social diversity, b.) globalisation processes often
opposed by new forms of transnational civil society and (proto-)legal networks,
c.) multiple identities and multiculturalism embedded in complex multi-sited
legal frameworks, d.) human rights issues where social conflicts and
confrontations are negotiated (often reflecting emerGhent and/or established
hierarchies), e.) the political economy of natural resource rights where
distance and proximity appear to be interlocked, therefore making peaceful
solutions more difficult.
Dejuridification
and the legal status of World Bank and IMF “loan arrangements”: The
institutional reforms in Malawi
Gerhard Anders,
University of Zurich
Between
Morality and the Law: An Italian case of stratified corruption in public
services
Italo Pardo, University of Kent
Alice Mogwe,
Ditshwanelof, Gaborone
Legal pluralism
and family law in Syria
Annika Rabo,
Stockholm University
Ingo
Schröder, Philipps University, Marburg
Legal
anthropology and Anthropology of Law: Certain Epistemological Issues
Lily
Stylianoudi, Research Centre for Greek Society, Academy of Athens,
The legal arena
as a battle field: Salafiyya legal intervention and local response in rural
Morocco
Bertram Turner,
Max-Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale
North Albanian
customary law kanun as a ‘habitus’
Stéphane
Voell, Philipps University, Marburg