Legal Pluralism, Customary Law, and Development

Abstract This paper aims to consider the significance of legal pluralism for the theory and practice of law and development. First, it confirms the unique implication of the concept of legal pluralism and its possible impact on law and development. Second, it analyzes the major forms of legal pluralism by following the legal history. They include (a) the pluralism of received laws from foreign countries and the indigenous laws, which appeared in the reception of Roman law to European countries, and that of Western laws to non-Western countries in the modernization or postcolonial legal reform of a state; (b) the pluralism of unified state law and customary laws in the centralization process of a political structure; and (c) the pluralism of state laws and globalized rules. Finally, it identifies the significance of legal pluralism with the interactions between the different laws in their values and principles of different origins, which are driving force of legal change for development and crucial for the theory and practice of law and development.