Rules of Law and Laws of Ruling: On the Governance of Law

This book explores the changing relations between law and governance. The work examines how changes in the structure of governance affect the relative social significance of law within situations of legal pluralism. The authors argue that there has been a re-regulation rather than a de-regulation, propagated by a plurality of regulative authorities. This re-regulation is accompanied by an increasing ideological dominance of rights talk and increasing juridification of conflict. Drawing on insights into such processes, the volume explores the extent to which law is used both as a constitutive legitimation of governance and as the medium through which governance processes take place. The contributions presented here highlight some of the paradoxes and the unintended consequences of these regulating processes and the ensuing dynamics.The book offers an anthropological perspective on governance by many of the leading scholars in the anthropology of law. It will be a valuable resource for researchers and students working in the areas of legal anthropology, and governance.

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