Law Commons^™

Federalism As Legal Pluralism, Erin Ryan

Scholarly Publications

This chapter uses the dynamic federalism model of constitutional dual sovereignty as an analytic window into the larger legal pluralism discourse that has emerged in recent decades. Legal pluralism explores the significance of the multiple sources of legal authority and identity with which individuals simultaneously engage. These overlapping sources of normative authority range from local, national, and international institutions of government to private sources of “quasi-legal” norms generated by tribal, religious, commercial, professional, or other associations. Scholarly advocates of legal pluralism challenge the tradition of legal monism—so entrenched that its presumptions often go unnoticed—which views legitimate legal authority as deriving …