Seán Patrick Donlan lectures at the University of Limerick (Ireland). He is President of Juris Diversitas, the Editor of Comparative Legal History, and Secretary General of the World Society of Mixed Jurisdiction Jurists. His research focuses on comparative law, legal history, legal philosophy, and the social sciences. Dr Lukas Heckendorn Urscheler is Vice-Director at the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law (Lausanne). He is also on the Executive Committee of Juris Diversitas and of the Swiss Society of International Law (Société Suisse de Droit International). His research focuses on comparative law, Asian law, and the law of torts.

'This book contains a wonderful collection of essays on the meaning of law in a pluralist society. It is the first volume to bring together stimulating views of celebrated comparatists, legal theorists and social scientists on contemporary legal complexity. Indispensable reading for anyone interested in the state of contemporary law.' Jan Smits, Maastricht University, The Netherlands ’This work displays a remarkably diverse range of opinion in current legal thought and critical scholarship about the nature of law. Although debate on the subject is certainly not new, this book carries it much further into the richly complex world of normative pluralism.’ Tom Bennett, University of Cape Town, South Africa 'This edited collection confronts us with the choice between having to tame a tiger and thinking the tiger to be a cat, just a different one. When writing about "concepts of law", then one apparently must pay tribute and homage, but one must also be daring and fierce. The authors in this book do both, and do it very differently, from one to the other, and thus offer a refreshing look at some of the (really) old problems of law and some of the old, newer and emerging views that exist with regard to the definition, concept and nature of law and to its role and function in a society which itself doesn't stand still. Reading is highly recommended.' Peer Zumbansen, King's College London, UK ’This book is a significant contribution to comparative legal scholarship. It is a collection of sophisticated essays on the nature of law and legal pluralism from philosophical, sociological, historical and comparativist perspectives.’ Vivian Grosswald Curran, University of Pittsburgh, USA

• Chapter 1 Concepts of Law, Seán PatrickDonlan, Lukas HeckendornUrscheler; Chapter 2 Beyond the State In and Of Legal Theory, Maksymilian DelMar; Chapter 3 Do “Legal Systems” Exist? The Concept of Law and Comparative Law, Mark VanHoecke; Chapter 4 The Concept of Law, BaudouinDupret; Chapter 5 The Truth is Out There? Legal Pluralism and the Language-Game, JaakkoHusa; Chapter 6 Remembering and Applying Legal Pluralism, WernerMenski; Chapter 7 A Sense of Law, EmmanuelMelissaris; Chapter 8 Three Perils of Legal Pluralism, CatherineValcke; Chapter 9 Legal Sociology and the Sociology of Norms, DavidNelken; Chapter 10 Is Law a Special Domain? On the Boundary between the Legal and the Social, MarianoCroce; Chapter 11 The Creation and Use of Concepts of Law when Confronting Legal and Normative Plurality, AndrewHalpin; Chapter 12 A Concept of Law for Global Legal Pluralism?, RogerCotterrell; Chapter 13 The Concept of Law in Postnational Perspective, Alessio LoGiudice; Chapter 14 What is the Context in “Law in Context”?, JuliaEckert; Chapter 15 Short Notes on the Legal Pluralism(s) in Somaliland, SalvatoreMancuso;