Understanding Law in Micronesia

An Interpretive Approach to Transplanted Law
Erscheinungsjahr 1993
ISBN: 978-90-04-09768-1
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 7, 214 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 239 mm, Gewicht: 404 g

Reihe: Studies in Human Society

This book examines law in Micronesia from a novel perspective. It draws upon several branches of interpretive analysis, including mundane phenomenology, symbolic interaction, and cultural hermeneutics, to construct a comprehensive approach to transplanted systems of state law. Rather than the usual focus on legal norms and institutions, this approach directs attention to the law-related meaningful actions and understandings of legal actors and of non-legal actors.
Application of this approach results in insights about law in Micronesia, as well as about law itself, and about the ideology of law. A wide range of subjects are addressed, from the nature of legal thinking to the autonomy of law. It is a work in legal theory grounded in psychological, sociological and anthropological observations and analysis.

Zielgruppe

Lawyers and legal theorists, legal sociologists and anthropologists, all those interested in law in developing countries, in transplanted law, in the Pacific region, or in interpretive analysis.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Tamanaha, Brian Z

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface

CHAPTER ONE, Introduction
Existing Approaches to Transplanted Law
A. The Law and Development Movement
B. Legal culture
C. Legal Anthropology and Legal Pluralism
Understanding (Law in Micronesia)
(Understanding Law) in Micronesia
Thesis

CHAPTER TWO, The Setting
Law from Afar
Actors
A. Expatriate Lawyer
B. Micronesian Lawyer
C. Non-Lawyer Micronesian Legal Actors
D. Micronesian Non-Legal Actors
Legal discourse
A. Legal Language is English
B. Legal Language
C. Stylized Mode of Discourse
When a Judge Is a Judge
A Case of Translation
Law’s Resistance
People behind the Law
Leaving the Setting

CHAPTER THREE, Theory Talk
Mundane Phenomenology of Alfred Schutz
A. Intersubjectivity, Thought, and Social Interaction
B. Methodology: Intersubjective Meaning and Ideal Types
C. Softening Schutz’s Objectivism
Geertz’s Cultural Hermeneutics: Thick Description
Schutz and Geertz, and Their Shared Weakness
Self-serving Note on Methodology

CHAPTER FOUR, Law in Interpretive Terms
Legal Institution as a Complex of Connected Actions
Elements of Law
Internal Legal Attitude of the U.S. Legal tradition
A. Law as a Separate Reality
B. Judging: Cognitive Style and Patterns of Thought
A Claim to Plausibility

CHAPTER FIVE, Back to Micronesia
Communities of Mixed Thought and Mixed Communities of Thought
A. The Concept Culture
B. Two Senses of Mixed Culture
C. A Stranger in the Community
Inside the Legal Arena
A. Expatriate Lawyers in the Internal Legal Attitude
B. Micronesian Lawyers in the Internal Legal Attitude
C. Non-Lawyer Micronesian Legal Actor’s Experience of Law
D. Impact of Non-Lawyer Judges on Operation of Legal System
E. Countervailing Poles
Seeing Something Else When Looking at Law
A. The Ideology of Law
B. Law as a Symbol
C. Legal Institutions and Legal System
D. What They Do See
E. Law at a Distance
F. Advantage of Positive Knowledge about Law
G. Cross-Cultural Interaction within a Community

CHAPTER SIX, An Autonomous Law
The Autonomy of Law
Figuration Theory
National and State Level Figurations
Three Types of Autonomy

CHAPTER SEVEN, Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Brian Z. Tamanaha, S.J.D. (1992), Harvard Law School, is Lecturer at the University of Amsterdam. He has published articles on a range of subjects, including legal anthropology and legal theory.