Book Description

The Law & Anthropology Yearbook brings together a collection of studies that discuss legal problems raised by cultural differences between people & the law to which they are subject. Most of the contributions to Volume 9 were presented at the IXth International Symposium of the Commission on Folk Law & Legal Pluralism, & focus on the subject of 'Natural Resources, Environment, & Legal Pluralism'. The natural resources which form the environment of rural people are subject to increasing pressures. Intensive forms of resource extraction increasingly endanger the continued availability & ecological quality of land, forest & water resources. Especially in regions inhabited by indigenous peoples, struggles over the control & social & economic function of natural resources are directly linked to conflicts over political & economic self-determination. Inevitably, the different legal systems, & the substantive & procedural possibilities they provide, become involved in struggles over political, economic & ecological values & objectives. The focus on natural resource management issues therefore is a particularly fruitful field to examine the contemporary functions of folk law in complex legal & economic systems.