Hertogh, Marc --- "What is Non-State Law? Mapping the Other Hemisphere of the Legal World" [2008] ELECD 304; in van Schooten, Hanneke; Verschuuren, Jonathan (eds), "International Governance and Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008)

Book Title: International Governance and Law

Editor(s): van Schooten, Hanneke; Verschuuren, Jonathan

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847207272

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: What is Non-State Law? Mapping the Other Hemisphere of the Legal World

Author(s): Hertogh, Marc

Number of pages: 20

Extract:

2. What is non-state law? Mapping the
other hemisphere of the legal world
Marc Hertogh

By confining the attention of the investigator to the state, to tribunals, to
statutes, and to procedure, this concept of law has condemned the science of law
to the poverty under which it has been suffering most terribly down to the
present day. Its further development presupposes liberation from these shackles
and a study of the legal norm not only in its connection with the state but also
in its social connection. (Ehrlich [1936] 2002, p. 164)



1. INTRODUCTION: NON-STATE LAW OR
NONSENSE LAW?

In recent years, the number of references to `non-state law' has increased
dramatically, from less than 1500 in 1985­1995 to well over 15,000 in
1995­2005.1 All these publications, on subjects ranging from customary law
and indigenous rights to the rules of the world wide web, struggle with the
same fundamental question: What is non-state law? This is not an issue for
the faint-hearted. Over the years, it has led to many `emotionally loaded
debates' (von Benda-Beckmann 2002, p. 37), it has been at the centre of `ide-
ological combat' (Woodman 1998, p. 21) and it has even sparked the occa-
sional `war of faith' (Teubner 1997, p. 8). For some legal anthropologists
and sociologists, non-state law is equally as important as official law. In their
opinion, only those lawyers with a similar view should be considered true
`enlightened jurists' (Allott ...