1932

Abstract

This article seeks to provide an overview of how the controversial concept of legal culture has been used so as to clarify its potential role in further developing comparative studies of law in society. It shows that the term is currently given a variety of meanings, ranging from treating it as a variable that explains the turn to law, to exploring law as culture in different settings. As a way of moving forward, attention should be given to what is assumed or asserted by given authors with respect to three key issues: the kind of facts that are thought to make up legal culture, the chosen approach within which the concept is deployed, and the normative aspects of the enquiry. It ends by revisiting Chanock's so as to show how this framework can help reveal the theoretical underpinnings and contribution of a leading case study.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-110615-084950
2016-10-27
2024-10-13
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/lawsocsci/12/1/annurev-lawsocsci-110615-084950.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-110615-084950&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

Literature Cited

  1. Ackerman B. 1986. Law, economics, and the problem of legal culture. Duke Law J. 1986:6929–47 [Google Scholar]
  2. Arold NL. 2007. The Legal Culture of the European Court of Human Rights Amsterdam: Martinus Nijhoff [Google Scholar]
  3. Banakar R. 2008. The politics of legal cultures. Retfoerd Nord. J. Law Justice 31:37–60 [Google Scholar]
  4. Banakar R. 2015. Driving Culture in Iran: Law and Society on the Roads of the Islamic Republic London: IB Taurus [Google Scholar]
  5. Bell J. 2001. French Legal Cultures Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  6. Benton L. 2002. Law and Colonial Cultures: Legal Regimes in World History, 1400–1900 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  7. Bierbrauer G. 1994. Toward an understanding of legal culture: variations in individualism and collectivism between Kurds, Lebanese, and Germans. Law Soc. Rev. 28:243–64 [Google Scholar]
  8. Blankenburg E. 1997. Civil litigation rates as indicators for legal culture. See Nelken 1997a. 41–68
  9. Blankenburg E, Bruinsma F. 1991. Dutch Legal Culture Alphen aan den Rijn, Neth.: Kluwer Law Int. [Google Scholar]
  10. Boggio A. 2003. The Puzzle of Mass Torts: A Comparative Study of Asbestos Litigation Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  11. Bruinsma F, Blankenburg E. 2000. Dutch Law in Action Nijmegen, Neth.: Ars Aequi Libri [Google Scholar]
  12. Chanock M. 2001. The Making of South African Legal Culture 1902–1936: Fear, Favour and Prejudice Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  13. Chase OG. 2007. Law, Culture, and Ritual: Disputing Systems in Cross-Cultural Context New York: N.Y. Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  14. Chiba M. 1989. Legal Pluralism: Toward a General Theory Through Japanese Legal Culture Tokyo: Tokai Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  15. Church TW. 1982. Examining Local Legal Culture: Practitioner Attitudes in Four Criminal Courts Washington, DC: Natl. Inst. Justice [Google Scholar]
  16. Cohen AJ. 2009. Thinking with culture in law and development. Buffalo Law Rev 57:511 [Google Scholar]
  17. Coombe RJ. 1998. Contingent articulations: a critical cultural studies of law. Law in the Domains of Culture A Sarat, J Simon 21–64 Ann Arbor: Univ. Mich. Press [Google Scholar]
  18. Cotterrell R. 1997. The concept of legal culture. See Nelken 1997a. 13–32
  19. Cotterrell R. 1998. Law and community: A new relationship?. Curr. Legal Probl. 51:1367–91 [Google Scholar]
  20. Cotterrell R. 2004. Law in culture. Ratio Juris 17:1–14 [Google Scholar]
  21. Couso J, Huneeus A, Sieder R. 2010. Cultures of Legality: Judicialization and Political Activism in Latin America Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  22. DiFonzo JH. 1997. Beneath the Fault Line: The Popular and Legal Culture of Divorce in Twentieth-Century America Charlottesville: Univ. Press Va. [Google Scholar]
  23. Engel DM. 2012. The uses of legal culture in contemporary socio-legal studies: a response to Sally Engle Merry. See Nelken 2012a 77–85
  24. Engel DM, Engel JS. 2010. Tort, Custom, and Karma: Globalization and Legal Consciousness in Thailand Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  25. Engel D, McCann M. 2009. Fault Lines: Tort Law as Cultural Practice Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  26. Ewick P, Silbey S. 1998. The Common Place of the Law Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press [Google Scholar]
  27. Feldman E. 1997. Patients' rights, citizen movements and Japanese legal culture. See Nelken 1997a 215–36
  28. Feldman E. 2001. Blood justice, courts, conflict and compensation in Japan, France and the United States. Law Soc. Rev. 34:651–702 [Google Scholar]
  29. Feldman E. 2006a. The culture of legal change: a case study of tobacco control in twenty-first century Japan. Mich. J. Int. Law 27:743–821 [Google Scholar]
  30. Feldman E. 2006b. The tuna court: law and norms in the world's premier fish market. Calif. Law Rev. 94:313–69 [Google Scholar]
  31. Ferrarese MR. 1997. An entrepreneurial conception of the law: the American model through Italian eyes.. See Nelken 1997a 157–81
  32. Field S. 2012. Finding or imposing coherence? Comparing national cultures of youth justice. See Nelken 2012a 306–26
  33. Friedman L. 1975. The Legal System: A Social Science Perspective New York: Russell Sage Found. [Google Scholar]
  34. Friedman L. 1994. Is there a modern legal culture?. Ratio Juris 7:117–31 [Google Scholar]
  35. Friedman L. 1997. The concept of legal culture: a reply. See Nelken 1997a 33–40
  36. Friedman L. 2006. The place of legal culture in the sociology of law. Law and Sociology M Freeman 185–99 Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  37. Friedman L. 2011. The Human Rights Culture: A Study in History and Context New Orleans: Quid Pro Books [Google Scholar]
  38. Friedman L, Perez-Perdomo R. 2003. Legal Culture in the Age of Globalization: Latin America and Latin Europe Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  39. Galanter M. 2009. India's tort deficit: sketch of a historical portrait. Fault Lines: Tort Law as Cultural Practice D Engel, M McCann 47–65 Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  40. Garapon A. 1995. French legal culture and the shock of “globalization.”. Soc. Legal Stud. 4:493–506 [Google Scholar]
  41. Geertz C. 1983. Local knowledge: fact and law in comparative perspective. Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology C Geertz 167–234 New York: Basic Books [Google Scholar]
  42. Gessner V, Hoeland A, Varga C. 1996. European Legal Cultures Aldershot, UK: Dartmouth [Google Scholar]
  43. Gibson JI, Caldeira GA. 1996. The legal cultures of Europe. Law Soc. Rev. 30:55–86 [Google Scholar]
  44. Gillespie J. 2006. Transplanting Commercial Law Reform: Developing a Rule of Law in Vietnam Aldershot, UK: Ashgate [Google Scholar]
  45. Gillespie J. 2008. Developing a decentred analysis of legal transfers. Examining Practice, Interrogating Theory: Comparative Studies in Asia P Nicholson, S Biddulph 25–70 Amsterdam: Martinus Nijhoff [Google Scholar]
  46. Glenn P. 2004. Legal cultures and legal traditions. Epistemology and Methodology of Comparative Law M Van Hoeck 7–20 London: Bloomsbury [Google Scholar]
  47. Glenn P. 2007. Legal Traditions of the World Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press., 3rd ed.. [Google Scholar]
  48. Grodeland AB, Miller WL. 2015. European Legal Cultures in Transition Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  49. Haines F. 2005. Globalisation and Regulatory Character Aldershot, UK: Ashgate [Google Scholar]
  50. Haley JO. 1978. The myth of the reluctant litigant. J. Jpn. Stud. 4:359–90 [Google Scholar]
  51. Halliday TC, Karpik L, Feeley MM. 2007. Fighting for Political Freedom: Comparative Studies of the Legal Complex and Political Liberalism Oxford: Hart [Google Scholar]
  52. Halliday TC, Karpik L, Feeley MM. 2012. Fates of Political Liberalism in the British Post-Colony: The Politics of the Legal Complex Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  53. Haltom W, McCaan M. 2004. Distorting the Law Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press [Google Scholar]
  54. Hendley K. 2013. The puzzling non-consequences of societal distrust of courts: explaining the use of Russian courts. Cornell Int. Law J. 45:517–67 [Google Scholar]
  55. Hertogh M. 2012. The curious case of Dutch legal culture: a reassessment of survey evidence. See Nelken 2012a 189–217
  56. Hodgson J. 2005. French Criminal Justice: A Comparative Account of the Investigation and Prosecution of Crime in France Oxford: Hart [Google Scholar]
  57. Hofstede G. 1980/2001. Culture's Consequences New York: Sage [Google Scholar]
  58. Husa J. 2015. A New Introduction to Comparative Law London: Bloomsbury [Google Scholar]
  59. Jacob R. 2014. The judge and the sacred: notes for a comparative history of Western and Chinese judicial cultures. Asian J. Law Soc. 1:17–30 [Google Scholar]
  60. Johnson D. 1996. The Japanese Way of Justice Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  61. Kagan R. 2001. Adversarial Legalism: The American Way of Law Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  62. Kahn P. 2000. The Cultural Study of Law Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press [Google Scholar]
  63. Kenney S. 1996. Review of E. Blankenburg and F. Bruinsma Dutch Legal Culture. , 2nd. Law Polit. Book Rev. 6:9122–23 [Google Scholar]
  64. Kubal A. 2012. Socio-Legal Integration: Polish Post-2004 EU Enlargement Migrants in the United Kingdom Aldershot, UK: Ashgate [Google Scholar]
  65. Krygier M. 1996–1997 Is there constitutionalism after communism? Institutional optimism, cultural pessimism, and the rule of law. Int. J. Sociol. Law 26:17–47 [Google Scholar]
  66. Kuper A. 1999. Culture: The Anthropologist's Account Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  67. Kurkchiyan M. 2009. Russian legal culture: an analysis of adaptive response to an institutional transplant. Law Soc. Inq. 34:337–64 [Google Scholar]
  68. Kurkchiyan M. 2011. Perceptions of law and social order: a cross-national comparison of collective legal consciousness. Wis. Int. Law J. 29:366–92 [Google Scholar]
  69. Kurkchiyan M. 2012. Comparing legal cultures: three models of court for small civil cases. See Nelken 1997a 218–50
  70. Lappi-Seppälä T. 2007. Penal policy in Scandinavia. Crime Justice 36:217–95 [Google Scholar]
  71. Legrand P. 1997. Fragments on Law as Culture Deventer, Neth.: W.E.J. Tjeenk Willink [Google Scholar]
  72. Mahoney J. 2000. Path dependence in historical sociology. Theory Soc 29:507–48 [Google Scholar]
  73. Mautner M. 2011a. Law and the Culture of Israel Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  74. Mautner M. 2011b. Three approaches to law and culture. Cornell Law Rev. 96:839 [Google Scholar]
  75. Menski WF. 2006. Comparative Law in a Global Context: The Legal Systems of Asia and Africa Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press., 2nd ed.. [Google Scholar]
  76. Merry S. 2012. What is legal culture? An anthropological perspective. See Nelken 2012a 52–76
  77. Merryman JH, Perez-Perdomo R. 2007. The Civil Law Tradition: Europe, Latin America, and East Asia Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press., 3rd ed.. [Google Scholar]
  78. Mezey N. 2003. Law as culture. Cultural Analysis, Cultural Studies and the Law: Moving beyond Legal Realism A Sarat, J Simon 37–72 Durham, NC: Duke Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  79. Miyazawa S. 1987. Taking Kawashima seriously: a review of Japanese research on Japanese legal consciousness and disputing behavior. Law Soc. Rev. 21:219–42 [Google Scholar]
  80. Nelken D. 1995. Disclosing/invoking legal culture. Soc. Leg. Stud. 4:4 Spec. Issue435–53 [Google Scholar]
  81. Nelken D. 1997a. Comparing Legal Cultures Aldershot, UK: Dartmouth [Google Scholar]
  82. Nelken D. 1997b. Puzzling out legal culture: a comment on Blankenburg. See Nelken 1997a 58–88
  83. Nelken D. 2001. Beyond the metaphor of legal transplants? Consequences of autopoietic theory for the study of cross-cultural legal adaptation. Law's New Boundaries: The Consequences of Legal Autopoiesis J Priban, D Nelken 265–302 Aldershot, UK: Dartmouth [Google Scholar]
  84. Nelken D. 2003. Beyond compare? Criticising the American way of law. Law Soc. Inq. 28:181–213 [Google Scholar]
  85. Nelken D. 2004. Using the concept of legal culture. Aust. J. Legal Philos. 29:1–26 [Google Scholar]
  86. Nelken D. 2006. Rethinking legal culture. Law and Sociology M Freeman 200–24 Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  87. Nelken D. 2007a. Defining and using the concept of legal culture. Comparative Law: A Handbook E Orücuü, D Nelken 109–32 Oxford: Hart [Google Scholar]
  88. Nelken D. 2007b. Three problems in employing the concept of legal culture. Explorations in Legal Culture F Bruinsma, D Nelken 11–28 Amsterdam: Reed Elsevier [Google Scholar]
  89. Nelken D. 2009. The temple of rights: review essay of Nina-Louisa Arold. Eur. Public Law 15:3447–56 [Google Scholar]
  90. Nelken D. 2011. Human trafficking and legal culture. Israel Law Rev 43:479–513 [Google Scholar]
  91. Nelken D. 2012a. Using Legal Culture London: Wildy, Simmons and Hill [Google Scholar]
  92. Nelken D. 2012b. Using legal culture: purposes and problems. See Nelken 2012a 2–51
  93. Nelken D. 2013. Can prosecutors be too independent? An Italian case-study. European Penology? T Daems, S Snacken, D Van der vyl Smit 241–61 Oxford: Hart [Google Scholar]
  94. Nicholson P. 2008. Legal culture repacked: drug trials in Vietnam. Examining Practice, Interrogating Theory: Comparative Legal Studies in Asia P Nicholson, S Biddulph 71–108 Amsterdam: Martinus Nijhoff [Google Scholar]
  95. Ogus A. 2011. The economic approach: competition between legal systems. Comparative Law: A Handbook E Orucu, D Nelken 155–67 Oxford: Hart [Google Scholar]
  96. Palmer N. 2015. Courts in Conflict Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  97. Perenboom R. 2004. Asian Discourses of Rule of Law London: Routledge [Google Scholar]
  98. Pierson P. 2000. Increasing returns, path dependence, and the study of politics. Am. Polit. Sci. Rev. 94:251–67 [Google Scholar]
  99. Polak P, Nelken D. 2010. Polish prosecutors, corruption and legal culture. East-Central Europe After Transition: Towards a New Socio-Legal Semantics A Febbrajo, W Sadurski 219–54 Aldershot, UK: Ashgate [Google Scholar]
  100. Potter PB. 2001. The Chinese Legal System: Globalisation and Local Legal Culture London: Routledge [Google Scholar]
  101. Rajah J. 2013. Authoritarian Rule of Law: Legislation, Discourse and Legitimacy in Singapore Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  102. Ramseyer JM, Nakazato M. 1999. Japanese Law: An Economic Approach Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press [Google Scholar]
  103. Renteln AD. 2004. The Cultural Defense Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  104. Rosen L. 2008. Law as Culture Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  105. Sacco R. 1991. Legal formants: a dynamic approach to comparative law. Am. J. Comp. Law 39:1–34 [Google Scholar]
  106. Sassen S. 2006. Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  107. Sezgin Y. 2012. The role of alternative legalities in bringing about socio-legal change in religious systems. See Nelken 2012a 344–62
  108. Shah P. 2005. Legal Pluralism in Conflict London: Glasshouse [Google Scholar]
  109. Shamir J. 2015. While in Rome, do as Romans do? Persistence of legal culture: the case of immigrants from the former Soviet Union to Israel. Studies in Law, Politics, and Society 66 A Sarat 115–77 Bingley, UK: Emerald [Google Scholar]
  110. Shapo MS. 2003. Tort Law and Culture Durham, NC: Carolina Acad. [Google Scholar]
  111. Siems M. 2014. Comparative Law Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  112. Silbey S. 2005. After legal consciousness. Annu. Rev. Law Soc. Sci. 1:323–68 [Google Scholar]
  113. Silbey S. 2010. Legal culture and cultures of legality. Handbook of Cultural Sociology JR Hall, L Grindstaff, M Cheng-Loo 470–79 London: Routledge [Google Scholar]
  114. Silbey S. 2012. J. Locke, op. cit.: invocations of law on snowy streets. See Nelken 2012a 120–52
  115. Smulovitz C. 2010. Judicialization in Argentina: legal culture or opportunities and support structures. Cultures of Legality: Judicialization and Political Activism in Latin America J Couso, A Huneeus, R Sieder 234–53 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  116. Steinmetz W. 2000. Private Law and Social Inequality in the Industrial Age: Comparing Legal Cultures in Britain, France, Germany, and the United States Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  117. Tanase T. 2010. Community and the Law: A Critical Reassessment of American Liberalism and Japanese Modernity Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar [Google Scholar]
  118. Teubner G. 1998. Legal irritants: good faith in British law or how unifying law ends up in new divergences. Modern Law Rev 61:11–32 [Google Scholar]
  119. Upham FK. 1987. Law and Social Change in Postwar Japan Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  120. Vanoverbeke D, Maesschalck J, Nelken D, Parmentier S. 2014. The Changing Role of Law in Japan Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar [Google Scholar]
  121. Verstappen J. 2014. Cultural obstacles to European legal integration: applying Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory Work. Pap., Maastricht Eur. Priv. Law Inst. Maastricht, Neth.: [Google Scholar]
  122. Vukovic D, Cvejic S. 2014. Legal culture in contemporary Serbia: structural analysis of attitudes towards the rule of law. Ann. Fac. L. Belgrade 62:352–73 [Google Scholar]
  123. Webber J. 2004. Culture, legal culture, and legal reasoning: a comment on Nelken. Aust. J. Legal Philos. 29:27–36 [Google Scholar]
  124. Whitman JQ. 2000. Enforcing civility and respect: three societies. Yale Law J 109:1279–398 [Google Scholar]
  125. Whitman JQ. 2003. Harsh Justice Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  126. Whitman JQ. 2004a. A simple story. Rechtsgeschichte 4:206–8 [Google Scholar]
  127. Whitman JQ. 2004b. The two western cultures of privacy: dignity versus liberty. Yale Law J 113:1151–221 [Google Scholar]
  128. Whitman JQ. 2005. Response to Garland. Punishm. Soc. 7:389–96 [Google Scholar]
  129. Whitman JQ. 2007. Consumerism versus producerism: a study in comparative law. Yale Law J 117:340–406 [Google Scholar]
  130. Winn JK. 1994. Relational practices and the marginalization of law: informal practices of small businesses in Taiwan. Law Soc. Rev. 28:193–232 [Google Scholar]
  131. World Bank. 2001. Legal Culture and Judicial Reform. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTLAWJUSTINST/Resources/LegalCultureBrief.pdf [Google Scholar]
  132. Zedner L. 1995. In pursuit of the vernacular: comparing law and order discourse in Britain and Germany. Soc. Legal Stud. 4:517–34 [Google Scholar]
  133. Zimmermann A. 2008. The politics of lawlessness in Brazil. eLaw J 15:3–42 [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-110615-084950
Loading
  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error