Legal pluralism, social theory, and the state

Legal pluralism has seen a marked rise in interest since the turn of the century. While long rejected in legal studies, legal pluralism is now widely accepted, not least in light of the broad range of perspectives on the state it has sought to interpret and it has produced. A crucial change could be noted in the 1970s, when legal anthropologists began to demonstrate the applicability of this term, and not just in anthropological thinking about law. Political and economic developments also profoundly changed constellations of legal pluralism, following diverse trajectories in which the concept obtained multiple meanings. While highlighting significant stages of this process, this chapter discusses how anthropological insights in law and legal pluralism metamorphosed from the study of law in colonial societies towards law of a widely varying scope under conditions of ever-increasing global connectedness. The epistemological insights drawn from the diverse trajectories reflect and shape the social theories of the time, where intersections of state and law represent a central theme, albeit to a greater extent in some periods, and virtually absent in others.