Starting from 2021, every issue of the Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law will contain an editorial to introduce the journal’s content, update readers on new developments or information on the journal, or comment on important societal issues related to the thematic field of the journal. This is only part of a larger number of planned changes in the journal, some of which will be introduced below.
For the journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law, 2021 is a year of celebration because of its 40th anniversary. The first issue of the Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law appeared in 1981, but its history actually goes back much earlier. Its predecessor, African Law Studies, first appeared in 1969 as a publication of the African Law Center in New York. This first 1969 issue contained papers on topics that, more than fifty years later, are still highly relevant, be it in a world that has radically changed: the role of customary land tenure, the legal basis under which foreign corporations operate in African countries, relations of developing countries with the (then) European Economic Community, and the role of copyright issues in relation to African culture. The journal appeared under this name until its 1980 issue, when the (then) editor-in-chief John Griffiths anounced its name change into “Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law (J.L.P.).” Its first issue contained a number of influential articles like Marc Galanter’s Justice in many rooms and Keebet von Benda-Beckmann’s Forum shopping and shopping forums.
Through its existence, the journal has made an important contribution to the social-scientific study of law and legal pluralism in a wide diversity of socio-cultural and political contexts. In association with the Commission on Legal Pluralism,Footnote1 it has played a crucial role in spreading the scientific-analytical recognition of other-than-state forms of law and their, often problematic, interactions with state laws and political authorities. Thus it has expanded research on and theorizing of legal pluralism as a basic social issue. Gaining wider acceptance for these insights was a major challenge in a scientific world characterized by hard disciplinary boundaries and a general state bias, especially in legal science. In a rapidly changing world, attention to manifestations of legal pluralism increasingly included the analysis of its international, transnational and global(-izing) dimensions, but always in relation to their meaning, impacts and transformations in specific localities—including issues of recognition, human rights and justice.
It can be concluded that the journal has been very successful in getting the concept of legal pluralism and the kind of social-scientific theorizing on which it is based more widely accepted in the academic world. It has even succeeded, to some extent, in “mainstreaming” the concept, use of which has increasingly found its way into publications on a variety of topics published across the wide landscape of social-scientific and other journals, as well as in books. The journal aims to remain a major publication outlet for work on the social-scientific study of law and legal pluralism in the broadest sense, with stress on the “social-scientific” and explicitly also inviting critical social-scientific and interdisciplinary work in which legal pluralism is part of the analysis but not per se the main topic. More about this in this year’s third issue. Another ambition of the journal is to remain a medium for stimulating and facilitating young scholars from all over the world to publish their work. The journal and the Commission’s conferences and courses on legal pluralism have always played an important role here.
This year’s third issue will be specifically dedicated to the journal’s 40th anniversary by both looking back on the last forty years and looking ahead. This will also be a year of gradual changes in the journal, including in its Editorial Board. From the current issue onwards, the journal will have a new team of core editors, consisting of Carolien Jacobs (editor; Leiden University), Elisabet Dueholm Rasch (editor; Wageningen University), Dik Roth (editor-in-chief; Wageningen University) Marc Simon Thomas (editor; Utrecht University), and Melanie Wiber (editor; University of New Brunswick). The core editorial team is currently working on the formation of a larger and more diverse group of Associate Editors. From 2022, the journal will no longer have a separate Advisory Board.
From 2022, the name of the journal will also change from The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law into Legal Pluralism and Critical Social Analysis. The addition “and unofficial law” has never been very popular but has persisted for several decades. The new title should express more clearly than before that this is not a disciplinary legal journal, but a journal that is firmly based in social science and social-scientific approaches to law, seeking cross-fertilization with a wide variety of disciplines. The journal will also accept a wider variety of contributions. We will inform the readers about this once the journal’s submission system has been prepared for this. Once implemented, such changes will also be published on the journal’s website.
This issue
This special issue starts with an article devoted to the work of Sally Engle Merry, who passed away last year. Merry’s academic work has crucially shaped debates about the social-scientific study of law and legal pluralism. Mark Goodale, who has worked with her intensively for many years, was willing to write this article in remembrance of her work and contributions to the anthropology of law. Then follows the actual special issue titled People and Forests at the Legal Frontier, organized and edited by Helen Dancer. An introduction to the special issue and six full articles explore major forest governance issues in various parts of the world theoretically and empirically, from an interdisciplinary perspective taking into account the legal-institutional, cultural, political, economic, and power dimensions of complex human-forest relationships. After the special issue, a book review by Ergun Cakal concludes this issue.
We thank all authors and the special issue editor for their contributions, and hope you will enjoy this issue and will continue to read and engage with the journal in the future.
The editors