Legal Pluralism and Science and Technology Studies

Exploring Sources of the Legal Pluriverse

Bibliographic Data

ID5412349
AuthorsBertram Turner (0000-0003-1235-8758, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology), M G Wiber (0000-0002-6764-0067, University of New Brunswick, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume48
Issue3
Pages457-474
Publication date2023-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience Technology & Human Values (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0162-2439 • E-ISSN: 1552-8251
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/01622439211069659
OpenAlexW4205986415
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited48

In introducing the contributions to this special section, we explore the links between social and juridical concepts of normativity and science and technology. We follow the Legal Pluralism challenge to the notion of state law as the sole source of normative order and point to how technological transformation creates a pluralistic legal universe that takes on new shapes under conditions of globalization. We promote a science and technology studies (STS)-inspired reworking of Legal Pluralism and suggest expanding the portfolio of legally effective regimes of ordering to include the normativity generated by materiality and technology. This normativity is amply demonstrated in the case studies included in the papers which make up this special section. We conclude that the inclusion of approaches developed in STS research helps analytically to overcome what we view as an incomplete law project, one unable to deal with the technicized lifeworlds of a global modernity. The contributions to this special section illustrate that technomaterial change cannot be understood without recognition of the role of normative impacts, and conversely, the legal pluriverse cannot be understood without recognition of the normative role of techno-material arrangements

Empirical legal studies · Epistemology · Globalization · Law and economics · Legal pluralism · Legal realism · Legal research · Modernity · Normative · Political science · Sociology · Corporate Law and Human Rights · Environmental law and policy · International Maritime Law Issues · Law · Philosophy

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