Fernanda Pirie is a University Lecturer in socio-legal studies at the University of Oxford, and Director of the University's Centre for Socio-Legal Studies. An anthropologist by training, following a career at the London Bar, she has carried out fieldwork for over a decade on the Tibetan plateau. Her studies have centred on conflict resolution, social order, and tribe-state relations, and have lead to publications on violence, conflict, order, and disorder. More recently she has been working on the nature of legalism on the Tibetan plateau. She is a coordinator of the Oxford Legalism project, which brings together scholars from law, history, anthropology, classics, and oriental studies in a series of seminars and workshops, in order to compare examples of legalistic texts, practices, and thought from across the world.

This is a fascinating investigation into the nature of law in light of the findings of anthropology and comparative law... This reader has learnt a good deal from this persuasively argued book with its wealth of examples from all parts of the world and all ages of history. It must be recommended to anyone interested in legal theory, comparative law, or legal anthropology.

• 1. Introduction ; 2. Order, Disputes, and Legal Pluralism ; 3. Legal Thought: Meaning and Form ; 4. Law as an Intellectual Tradition ; 5. Idealism, Tradition, and Authority ; 6. Legalism ; 7. Morality and Community ; 8. Law and the State ; 9. Conclusion ; Bibliography

Fernanda Pirie is a University Lecturer in socio-legal studies at the University of Oxford, and Director of the University's Centre for Socio-Legal Studies. An anthropologist by training, following a career at the London Bar, she has carried out fieldwork for over a decade on the Tibetan plateau. Her studies have centred on conflict resolution, social order, and tribe-state relations, and have lead to publications on violence, conflict, order, and disorder. More recently she has been working on the nature of legalism on the Tibetan plateau. She is a coordinator of the Oxford Legalism project, which brings together scholars from law, history, anthropology, classics, and oriental studies in a series of seminars and workshops, in order to compare examples of legalistic texts, practices, and thought from across the world.

This is a fascinating investigation into the nature of law in light of the findings of anthropology and comparative law... This reader has learnt a good deal from this persuasively argued book with its wealth of examples from all parts of the world and all ages of history. It must be recommended to anyone interested in legal theory, comparative law, or legal anthropology.

• 1. Introduction ; 2. Order, Disputes, and Legal Pluralism ; 3. Legal Thought: Meaning and Form ; 4. Law as an Intellectual Tradition ; 5. Idealism, Tradition, and Authority ; 6. Legalism ; 7. Morality and Community ; 8. Law and the State ; 9. Conclusion ; Bibliography