Law and Culture: Reconceptualization and Case Studies (Law and Visual Jurisprudence, 5)

Divided into three parts, this book examines the relationship between law and culture from various perspectives, both theoretical and empirical. Part I outlines the framework for further considerations and includes new, innovative conceptualizations of two ideas that are essential to the topic of law and culture: legal culture and customary law. Both of these reappear later in the more empirically oriented chapters of Parts II and III. Part II includes chapters on the relationships between law, customs, and culture, drawing heavily on the tradition and achievements of the anthropology of law and touching on important problems of multiculturalism, legal pluralism, and cultural defense. It focuses on the more intangible meaning of culture, while Part III addresses its more material, tangible aspects and the issue of cultural production, as well as its intersection with law.

Mateusz Stępień is Professor of Sociology of Law in the Faculty on Law and Administration at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. His research interests focus on exploring the cultural dimension of law. He published papers on Chinese constitutionalism, Confucianism, images in judicial opinions, representative bureaucracy. He is currently working on the subject of judicial empathy and legal placebo.