Abstract
Let us start with the obvious question when analysing an early society and culture forour purpose: what is law? There are nearly as many definitions as there are legalhistorians and legal anthropologists out there. To make life easier I will pick one recentdefinition, by Francis Fukuyama (2012 pp. 245–46), who simplifies the predicament inthe following way: ‘The law is a body of abstract rules of justice that bind acommunity together. In premodern societies, the law was believed to be fixed by anauthority higher than any human legislator, either by a divine authority, by immemorialcustoms, or by nature.’ I suspect that someone like, for example, Bronislaw Malinowskiwould not wholeheartedly have embraced this definition with ‘rules of justice’. Instead,he might have stressed more complex reciprocal everyday obligations,1but many of theaspects I will discuss in this chapter are covered here: abstract (that is, implicit) ruleswhich bind a collective together; the link between a divine authority and law; and(immemorial) customs.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Title of host publication | Comparative Law and Anthropology, |
Subtitle of host publication | Research Handbooks in Comparative Law Series |
Editors | James A R Nafziger |
Publisher | Edward Elgar Publishing Limited |
Chapter | 13 |
Number of pages | 21 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 978 1 78195 518 5 |
ISBN (Print) | 978 1 78195 517 8 |
Publication status | Published - Jul 2017 |
Keywords
- 25ref2021
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Law, society and landscape in early Scandinavia'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Profiles
-
Stefan Brink
- Institute for Northern Studies - Professor
- UHI Orkney
Person: Academic - Research and Teaching or Research only