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Full-Text Articles in Law
Why Law?, James M. Donovan
Why Law?, James M. Donovan
James M. Donovan
Fairness, then, not order, is the special domain of law. The accompaniments of law we expect in our society flow less from law itself, and more from our changing understanding of what is fair. As our understanding of fairness changes, we expect the law to change as well. Because fairness criteria have been shown empirically to vary from society to society, we can expect legal diversity to remain an enduring feature of the jurisprudential landscape. But now we know why.
Anthropology & Law, James M. Donovan, H. Edwin Anderson
Anthropology & Law, James M. Donovan, H. Edwin Anderson
James M. Donovan
This book defends the thesis that the two fields of law and anthropology co-exist in a condition of "balanced reciprocity" wherein each makes important contributions to the successful practice and theory of the other. Anthropology offers a cross-culturally validated generic concept of "law," and clarifies other important legal concepts such as "religion" and "human rights." Law similarly illuminates key anthropological ideas such as the "social contract," and provides a uniquely valuable access point for the analysis of sociocultural systems.