A Law Unto Themselves
Legal innovation in Ambae, Vanuatu
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2465809 |
|---|---|
| Authors | William L Rodman (McMaster University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1985 |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 603-624 |
| Publication date | 1985-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Ethnologist (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0094-0496 • E-ISSN: 1548-1425 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1525/ae.1985.12.4.02a00010 |
| OpenAlex | W2071118760 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 12 |
| References cited | 23 |
There are few accounts in anthropological literature of radical legal innovation in small-scale societies. This paper discusses a South Pacific society in which, following the end of colonial rule, people reorganized their villages, codified their laws, and established a court system well able to resolve most disputes. The case of Ambae, Vanuatu, raises the question: Why, in a world area well known for economic, religious, and political innovation, has legal innovation been reported so rarely? It is suggested that the centralist perspective that prevails in legal scholarship concerning the Pacific has led to an overemphasis on the coercive nature of the state and a devaluation of Pacific islanders' capacity for legal innovation. [law, innovation, colonialism, Melanesia, Vanuatu
Colonialism · Currency · Devaluation · Economics · Law and economics · Perspective (graphical · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Scholarship · Sociology · State (computer science · Law · Law in Society and Culture · Migration, Identity, and Health · Sex work and related issues
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Diversidad y complejidad legal
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Empowering Place
When Questions Are Answers
The Politics of informal justice
Beyond Ujamaa in Tanzania
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A Socialist Legal System in the Making
Courts and Courtship in a New Hebridean Society1
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Politico‐religious Movements and Anticolonialism on Malaita
Politico Religious Movements and Anticolonialism on Malaita
A Note on Village Courts in Papua-New Guinea
Crime, Justice, and Underdevelopment
New Hebrides 1978–79
Antecedents of Maasina rule
From New Hebrides to Vanuatu, 1979–80∗
The Concept of Laws in Social Science
Justice in many Rooms
People in Villages
Man in the Primitive World
The Law of the Oppressed
Middlemen and Brokers in Oceania
Legal Innovation and Social Change in a Peasant Community
Big Men and Middlemen
Social Change and Primitive Law
| Unique citing works | 12 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 1990 - 2021 (32) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 12 |