From the local to the global: anthropological approaches to legal comparison

Anthropology is the study of social forms in all their variety. Studying law from an anthropological perspective means considering texts, rules, and practices in their cultural, and political contexts. It means asking about the activities and experiences of law makers and law users and about the social effects and meanings of legal forms and processes. One starts with the particular and unique in order to build more general understandings of societies and social practices. Legal comparatists have expressed enthusiasm for ‘interpretive’ approaches and for the study of diversity as well as similarity. However, an emphasis on difference and cultural specificity seems to present barriers to comparison. What, if anything, can be assumed to be constant and comparable across cultural divides? In this chapter, it is argued that understanding what is culturally specific can hardly be achieved without some sort of comparison. Any description of social forms involves a level of abstraction and this, in turn, invites comparison and the identification of commonalities and differences. Comparison can simply be a means to achieve a better understanding of a particular example. But it might also lead to more general theories and new ways of thinking about the forms laws take and their role in human societies.