The Conceptual Problems Arising from Legal Pluralism

Abstract

This paper argues that analytical jurisprudence has been insufficiently attentive to three significant puzzles highlighted by the legal pluralist tradition: The existence of commonalities between different types of law, the possibility of a distinction between law and non-law, and the explanatory centrality of the state. I further argue that the resolution of these questions sets the stage for a renewed agenda of analytical jurisprudence and has to be considered in attempts for reconciliation between the academic traditions of analytical jurisprudence and legal pluralism, often called pluralist jurisprudence. I also argue that the resolution of these problems affects the empirical, doctrinal, and politico-moral inquiries about legal pluralism.