Журнал зарубежного законодательства и сравнительного правоведения, 2020, № 4

2020. № 4 
Издается с 2005 года

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СМИ ПИ № ФС77-57274

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ISSN 1991-3222 (print)

ISSN 2587-9995 (online)

DOI 10.12737/issn.1991-3222

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ЗАРУБЕЖНОГО ЗАКОНОДАТЕЛЬСТВА 
И СРАВНИТЕЛЬНОГО ПРАВОВЕДЕНИЯ

РЕДАКЦИОННЫЙ СОВЕТ

Хабриева Т. Я. (главный редактор), директор Института законодательства и 
сравнительного правоведения при Правительстве Российской Федерации, академик Российской академии наук, действительный член Международной академии сравнительного права, член Бюро Европейской комиссии за демократию через право (Венецианской комиссии Совета Европы), д-р юрид. наук, проф., засл. 
юрист Российской Федерации
Ковлер А. И. (зам. главного редактора), заведующий отделом научного обеспечения деятельности секретариата делегации Российской Федерации в Европейской комиссии за демократию через право (Венецианской комиссии) Института законодательства и сравнительного правоведения при Правительстве Российской Федерации,  судья Европейского суда по правам человека (1999—2012) в отставке, чл.-корр. Международной академии сравнительного права, замещающий 
член Венецианской комиссии Совета Европы, государственный советник юстиции 1 класса, д-р юрид. наук, засл. юрист Российской Федерации
Автономов А. С., проректор Института международного права и экономики им. 
А. С. Грибоедова, экс-председатель Комитета ООН по ликвидации расовой дискриминации, д-р юрид. наук, проф.
Билкова В., преподаватель юридического факультета Карлова Университета 
в Праге, член Бюро Европейской комиссии за демократию через право (Венецианской комиссии Совета Европы), д-р права, д-р философии, доц.
Василевич Г. А., заведующий кафедрой конституционного права Белорусского государственного университета, чл.-корр. Национальной академии наук Беларуси, д-р юрид. наук, проф.
Ди Грегорио А., ординарный профессор сравнительного права Миланского 
университета, руководитель программы по политической науке и науке управления, д-р права
Капустин А. Я., научный руководитель Института законодательства и сравнительного правоведения при Правительстве Российской Федерации, президент Российской ассоциации международного права, заместитель председателя Международного союза юристов, д-р юрид. наук, проф., засл. деятель науки 
Российской Федерации
Кашкин С. Ю., заведующий кафедрой интеграционного и европейского права Московского государственного юридического университета им. О. Е. Кутафина, д-р юрид. наук, проф.
Матье Б., член Государственного совета Франции по особым поручениям, профессор Университета Париж 1 Пантеон-Сорбонна, член Европейской комиссии 
за демократию через право (Венецианской комиссии Совета Европы), вице-президент Международной ассоциации конституционного права, иностранный член 
Российской академии наук
Рогов И. И., заместитель исполнительного директора Фонда Первого Президента Республики Казахстан — Елбасы, член Европейской комиссии за демократию через право (Венецианской комиссии Совета Европы), д-р юрид. наук, проф.
Туори К., профессор Хельсинкского университета, член Европейской комиссии 
за демократию через право (Венецианской комиссии Совета Европы), д-р права
Чиркин С. В., ведущий научный сотрудник отдела научного обеспечения деятельности секретариата делегации Российской Федерации в Европейской комиссии за демократию через право (Венецианской комиссии) Института законодательства и сравнительного правоведения при Правительстве Российской Федерации, профессор Всероссийской академии внешней торговли, канд. юрид. наук
Чурсина Т. И. (отв. секретарь), заведующая объединенной редакцией периодических научных изданий Института законодательства и сравнительного правоведения при Правительстве Российской Федерации
Шильстейн Д., профессор, директор отдела исследований по уголовному праву Университета Париж 1 Пантеон-Сорбонна, чл.-корр. Международной академии 
сравнительного права, д-р права

2020, no. 4 
Since 2005

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ПИ No. ФС77-57274  
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ISSN 1991-3222 (print)
ISSN 2587-9995 (online)

DOI 10.12737/issn.1991-3222

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Journal

OF FOREIGN LEGISLATION 
AND COMPARATIVE LAW

[Zhurnal zarubezhnogo zakonodatel’stva i sravnitel’nogo pravovedeniya]

EDITORIAL COUNCIL

T. Y. Khabrieva (editor-in-chief), director of the Institute of Legislation and Comparative 
Law under the Government of the Russian Federation, academician of the Russian 
Academy of Sciences, titular member of the International Academy of Comparative Law, 
member of the Bureau of the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice 
Commission of the Council of Europe), doctor of legal sciences, professor, honored lawyer 
of the Russian Federation (Moscow, Russia)
A. I. Kovler (deputy editor-in-chief), head of the Department for scientific support of 
the activity of the secretariat of the Russian Delegation in the European Commission 
for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) of the Institute of Legislation and 
Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation, former judge of the 
European Court of Human Rights (1999—2012), associate member of the International 
Academy of Comparative Law, substitute member of the Venice Commission of the 
Council of Europe, 1st class state counselor of justice, doctor of legal sciences, honored 
lawyer of the Russian Federation (Moscow, Russia)
A. S. Avtonomov, vice rector of the Griboedov Institute of International Law and 
Economics, ex-chairman of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, 
doctor of legal sciences, professor (Moscow, Russia)
V. Bilkova, lecturer at the Law Faculty of the Charles University in Prague, member of 
the Bureau of the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission 
of the Council of Europe), doctor of law, doctor of philosophy, associate professor (Prague, 
Czech Republik)
G. A. Vasilevich, head of the Department of constitutional law of the Belarusian State 
University, corresponding member of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, doctor 
of legal sciences, professor (Minsk, Belarus)
A. Di Gregorio, full professor of public comparative law at the University of Milan, head 
of study of master program in political science and government, doctor of law (Milan, Italy)
A. Y. Kapustin, scientific supervisor of the Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law 
under the Government of the Russian Federation, president of the Russian Association 
of International Law, deputy chairman of the International Union of Lawyers, doctor of 
legal sciences, professor, honored scientist of the Russian Federation (Moscow, Russia)
S. Y. Kashkin, head of the Department of integration and european law of the Kutafin 
Moscow State Law University, doctor of legal sciences, professor (Moscow, Russia)
B. Mathieu, member of the State Counsil of France on extraordinary service, professor 
at the University Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne, member of the European Commission for 
Democracy through Law (Venice Commission of the Council of Europe), vice president 
of the International Association of Constitutional Law, foreign member of the Russian 
Academy of Sciences (Paris, France)
I. I. Rogov, deputy executive director of the Foundation of the first President of the 
Republic of Kazakhstan, member of the European Commission for Democracy through 
Law (Venice Commission of the Council of Europe), doctor of legal sciences, professor 
(Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan)
K. Tuori, professor at the University of Helsinki, member of the European Commission 
for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission of the Council of Europe), doctor of 
law (Helsinki, Finland)
S. V. Chirkin, leading research fellow of the Department for scientific support of 
the activity of the secretariat of the Russian Delegation in the European Commission 
for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) of the Institute of Legislation and 
Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation, professor at the 
Russian Foreign Trade Academy, candidate of legal sciences (Moscow, Russia)
T. I. Chursina (executive secretary), head of the Department of joint editorial office 
of scientific periodical publications of the Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law 
under the Government of the Russian Federation (Moscow, Russia)
D. Chilstein, professor, head of the Department of criminal law research of the 
University Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne, associate member of the International Academy 
of Comparative Law, doctor of law (Paris, France)

Журнал зарубежного законодательства и сравнительного правоведения. 2020. № 4
3

СОДЕРЖАНИЕ

ГОСУДАРСТВО И ПРАВО В СОВРЕМЕННОМ МИРЕ: ПРОБЛЕМЫ ТЕОРИИ И ИСТОРИИ

Рулан Н. Некоторые размышления о правовом плюрализме (на англ. яз.)  ........................................................................................5

КОНСТИТУЦИОННОЕ И МУНИЦИПАЛЬНОЕ ПРАВО

Гаджиев Х. И. Доктрина презумпции невиновности в век цифровых технологий  ....................................................................16

Юмашев Ю. М. Конституция: идея и история (на примере Античности, Англии, Франции, США и Германии)  .....................31

Алимов Э. В., Помазанский А. Е. Делиберативная демократия: новые вызовы и возможности в условиях развития 
информационного общества .........................................................................................................................................................47

АДМИНИСТРАТИВНОЕ ПРАВО. ФИНАНСОВОЕ ПРАВО. ИНФОРМАЦИОННОЕ ПРАВО

Крысенкова Н. Б., Чурсина Т. И., Лещенков Ф. А. Использование цифровых технологий в концепции открытого правительства за рубежом ..................................................................................................................................................................67

КОМПАРАТИВИСТСКИЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ УГОЛОВНОГО ПРАВА, КРИМИНОЛОГИИ И УГОЛОВНОИСПОЛНИТЕЛЬНОГО ПРАВА

Маликова Г. Р. Генезис прокуратуры Республики Узбекистан: «Восток — дело тонкое»  .........................................................80

ГРАЖДАНСКОЕ ПРАВО. ПРЕДПРИНИМАТЕЛЬСКОЕ ПРАВО. СЕМЕЙНОЕ ПРАВО.  
МЕЖДУНАРОДНОЕ ЧАСТНОЕ ПРАВО

Федчук В. Д. Правовое регулирование групп компаний: отход от права концернов как современная тенденция (на 
примере права Италии)  .................................................................................................................................................................97

МЕЖДУНАРОДНОЕ И ИНТЕГРАЦИОННОЕ ПРАВО. ЕВРОПЕЙСКОЕ ПРАВО

Ковлер А. И., Терновая О. А., Белялова А. М., Мехтиев М. Г., Фокин Е. А. Научно-аналитическая деятельность международных организаций в условиях чрезвычайных ситуаций  ............................................................................................... 118

НАУЧНЫЕ СООБЩЕНИЯ

Мехтиев М. Г. О решении Федерального конституционного суда Германии по программе выкупа государственных 
облигаций Европейским центральным банком  .........................................................................................................................134

СОБЫТИЯ ЮРИДИЧЕСКОЙ ЖИЗНИ

Анненкова И. В., Залоило М. В., Стебенева Л. В. Язык, право и общество в координатах массмедиа  ..............................139

МОНИТОРИНГ ЗАКОНОДАТЕЛЬСТВА ИНОСТРАННЫХ ГОСУДАРСТВ  ..............................................................................155

НОВЫЕ КНИГИ

Издано Институтом законодательства и сравнительного правоведения при Правительстве Российской Федерации  ......159

Journal of Foreign Legislation and Comparative Law, 2020, no. 4
4

CONTENTS

STATE AND LAW IN MODERN WORLD: PROBLEMS OF THEORY AND HISTORY

Rouland N. Some Reflexions about Legal Pluralism  .......................................................................................................................................5

CONSTITUTIONAL AND MUNICIPAL LAW

Hajiyev Kh. I. The Doctrine of the Presumption of Innocence in the Digital Age  .............................................................................16

Yumashev Yu. M. The Constitution: Idea and History (on the Example of Antiquity, England, France, USA and Germany)  ..........31

Alimov E. V., Pomazanskiy A. E. Deliberative Democracy: New Challenges and Opportunities 
in the Conditions of Developing Information Society  .......................................................................................................................47

ADMINISTRATIVE LAW. FINANCIAL LAW. INFORMATION LAW

Krysenkova N. B., Chursina T. I., Leschenkov F. A. Application of Digital Technologies in the Concept of Open Government  
in Foreign Countries  ........................................................................................................................................................................67

COMPARATIVE RESEARCHES OF CRIMINAL LAW, CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL EXECUTIVE LAW

Malikova G. R. Genesis of the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Uzbekistan: “The East Is a Delicate Matter”  .......................80

CIVIL LAW. ENTREPRENEURIAL LAW. FAMILY LAW. PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW

Fedchuk V. D. Legal Regulation of Groups of Companies: Derogation from the Law of Concerns as a Modern Trend (on

the Example of Italian Law)  .............................................................................................................................................................97

INTERNATIONAL AND INTEGRATION LAW. EUROPEAN LAW

Kovler A. I., Ternovaya O. A., Belyalova A. M., Mekhtiev M. G., Fokin E. A. The Scientific Activities of the Organizations

of Integration Associations in Conditions of Emergencies  ............................................................................................................. 118

SCIENTIFIC REPORTS

Mekhtiev M. G. On the Decision of the German Federal Constitutional Court on the European Central Bank's Public

Sector Purchase Program  .............................................................................................................................................................134

LEGAL EVENTS

Annenkova I. V., Zaloilo M. V., Stebeneva L. V. Language, Law, and Society in Mass Media Dimension  ....................................139

MONITORING OF THE FOREIGN COUNTRIES LEGISLATION  .................................................................................................155

NEW BOOKS

Publications of the Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation  ..................159

DOI: 10.12737/jflcl.2020.028

Some Reflexions about Legal Pluralism

Norbert ROULAND*, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille 13007, France
E-mail: norbert.rouland@wanadoo.fr

This article will be focused on two aspects of legal pluralism: legal history and legal anthropology which, in France, are strongly 
associated. Legal pluralism has always been concerned by the problem of relations between customs and Folk Law one side, that 
means living and fluent law; other side, State law of centered power, more abstract and rigid.
The first part will be more historical. We shall study the statute of customs in three centralized States: China, Russia and France. 
About China, it will be necessary to precise the place in customs in the Chinese legal thought and administration system of Chinese 
Empire, which is very different of the western Empires. After, we shall study the fate of customs in national minorities of South 
China, starting from 1949 to nowadays. About Russia and France, we shall give some data about same problems, in history and 
nowadays, with the particularity of Russian federalism.
The second part will be more theoretical. We shall try to explain what are the diverse theories of legal pluralism, which is the 
main current in legal anthropology today. All consider that State Law is not the unic law in any society. But the recognition of this 
fact by State and jurists is very variable, in the past and today. Moreover, the degree of plurality of law is not the same according 
the period. And it depends of the characteristics of the legal culture of each society. Common law systems more welcome legal 
pluralism.
We shall give a peculiar attention to the theories of Dutch author Van Den Steenhoven, who analysed legal pluralism in the 
context of colonialism, and also to the Japanese author Masaji Chiba, a legal anthropologist of Asian countries, who has written 
a lot of academic papers about legal pluralism in these countries.
Keywords: legal anthropology, legal pluralism, customs, state law, legal culture, common law system, Van Den Steenhoven, 
Masaji Chiba.

For citation: Rouland N. Some Reflexions about Legal Pluralism. Zhurnal zarubezhnogo zakonodatel'stva i sravnitel'nogo 
pravovedeniya = Journal of Foreign Legislation and Comparative Law, 2020, no. 4, pp. 5—15. DOI: 10.12737/jflcl.2020.028 
(In Russ.)

Introduction
To study a problem, a French lawyer will first outline 
its theory, then come to concrete examples. The common 
law jurist, on the contrary, will start from concrete cases 
to develop a theory. Regarding this brief presentation on 
legal pluralism, although being French, I shall adopt the 
second approach.
In the first part, historical, I shall take examples of 
legal plurality in China, Russia and France. In a second 
part I shall study a number of theories of legal pluralism 
by placing them in their contexts.
Part I: Historical Approach of folk law in China, 
Russia and France
A) Folk Law in China
By Folk law, it is necessary to understand which the 
old French law called the ius gentium, that is to say 
the laws which human groups have given themselves, 
regardless of their recognition by the State.

a) Marriage customs: State Law and Folk Law
1) Place of customs1
What was the place of customs in ancient China? 
The role of the law was not fundamental. One preferred 
to prevent conflicts and settle them by conciliation. 
Disputes had be resolved above all on the basis of ch'ing 
(feeling of humanity), then li (respect for others), then 
according to lii (reason), and finally fa (law, or the law). 
The most profound difference between the traditional 
Chinese system and the Western systems is the absence 
of subjective rights.
The fa mainly regulates public law and criminal law, 
but in private relations, everything is done to reach a 
conciliation, according to the moral of Confucius.
China is mainly a country of customs (su, xisu, 
fengshu), like many other countries in the world. They 
governed whole parts of private law: family, property and 
trade law. The State was not interested in customs, which 
varied according to places and populations. However, 

1  See: Antonio Gambaro, Rodolfo Sacco, Louis Vogel, Le droit 
de l'Occident et d'ailleurs, Paris, LGDJ, 2011, 387sq.

ГОСУДАРСТВО И ПРАВО  
В СОВРЕМЕННОМ МИРЕ:  
ПРОБЛЕМЫ ТЕОРИИ И ИСТОРИИ

* Professor emeritus of Faculty of Law, Aix-Marseille University, 
former member of Institut Universitaire de France, chair of Legal 
Anthropology.

Journal of Foreign Legislation and Comparative Law, 2020, no. 4
6

the judge had to find out about customs and take them 
into account when deciding, this activity gave rise to the 
publication of collections of cases law. The clan and the 
family themselves ensured justice by conforming to very 
variable customary rules.
The customs also governed the relations between the 
craftsmen and the tradesmen, grouped in corporations, 
which had their own jurisdictions. The State recognized 
family and corporate jurisdictions.
The Chinese Empire, by losing interest in a large part of 
the customs, acted in a manner comparable to the Pharaonic, 
Mesopotamia, Persia, Alexander, and India Empires.
The Roman Empire had a different attitude in 
codifying civil laws at its late period. Justinian's work 
provided the Eastern Empire, and therefore the Russian 
Empire, with a model of civil legislation. Later, Roman 
law was transmitted in Europe, but medieval jurists 
largely reinterpreted it, to adapt it to the situation of their 
time, very different from that of the Roman Empire.
But most of the time, the law applied in practice is 
customs. The ancient Romans lived for a long time under 
customary law, the mores, before resorting to codification 
very later. In France, before 1789, people lived according 
to customs, very different depending on the region. Until 
the beginning of the 20th century local languages were 
very common in this country.
Many times in history, and in many countries, 
customs have been written, and have been the subject of 
official writing. In this case, the customs were gradually 
transformed into State law. The men who wrote customs 
were influenced by the central government. And once 
the drafting was completed, the modification of customs 
became a monopoly of the central power.
2) Family customs in ancient China2
Since more than 2000 years, China is studying itself. 
Under the Han, when Empire has been unified, the 
fangshi were first ethnologists. They collected data to 
give the Emperor the means to well administrate different 
populations. This tradition continued with the Song.
In modern times , one can quote Yang Kun (1901—
1988). He was a student of Mauss and Granet, French 
scholars, and founded in 1934 The Society of Chinese 

2  See: Chen Zhongshi, Bailayuan, Renmin Wenxue, 
Beijing, 1993; Brigitte Baptandier, La Chine d'un point de vue 
anthropologique, Études chinoises, 2010, 219—233; Tania 
Angeloff, Le féminisme en République Populaire chinoise: entre 
ruptures et continuité, Revue Tiers-monde, 2012/1, numéro 209, 
p. 89—106; Leslie Chang, La fabrique des femmes-du village à 
l'usine: deux jeunes Chinoises racontent, Belfond, Paris, 2009; 
Shuaijiun Mallet-Jiang, Mao Zedong et l'évolution des droits de 
la femme en Chine, E-Crini, La revue électronique du centre 
de recherche sur les identités nationales et l'interculturalité, 
Université de Nantes; Catherine Capdeville, Mariage et amour 
en Chine-Les échanges et les sentiments dans les mariages dans 
un village du d'aujourd'hui, Quatrième congrès du réseau Asie et 
Pacifique, Paris, septembre 2011.

Ethnology. Another author is Yang Chengzhi (1902—
1991). He did fieldwork among the Yi of Sichuan.
Chinese ethnologists were first interested by the 
minzu, which had to access to the modernity. In 1980 the 
Academy of social sciences reappeared. In our century, 
the offices of culture (whenhuaju) and of religion (Zongjia 
Ju) collect data about Han.
When one does fieldwork, one discovers that local 
customs differ often from official norms, specially in 
family organisation.
At the base of society is the family, united by the worship 
of common ancestors. The father has full power over his 
children and grandchildren; it is he who determines the 
choice of the spouse and he has authority over his wife and 
concubines. Kinship creates groups on two levels: the clan 
and the family. At the head of the clan, the Zushang. The 
clan generally comprises five generations. The wives of 
the son belong to his family, the girls married to foreigners 
leave their families. The engagement could take place even 
when the future spouses were very young. The husband 
could repudiate his main wife in seven cases and repudiate 
his concubine without any limit. However, the wife could 
not repudiate her husband. Only men benefited from 
inheritance tax. The will did not exist.
3) Family customs in modern China and folk law3
From the seizure of power by the Communist Party, 
one can distinguish two types of legal pluralism.
The first is that which exists between the legislative 
law of the People's Republic and practical behavior. 
The second is that which results from the dichotomy 
between cities and countryside. We must add an 
intermediate category: the situation of migrants. These 
are observations that can be made in most countries of 
the world.
§ 1. State Law and real Life
From 1949, State law took legislative measures to 
suppress archaic and reprehensible customs: inhuman 
criminal sanctions, bandaging of the feet, oppression of 
young people by the family, etc. In 1950 a law prohibited 
forced marriage of women and authorized them to request 
a divorce. In practice, however, women were responsible 
for the well-being of their husbands and children. The 
traditional model remained. In 1953, women received 
the right to vote. But no woman has ever served on the 
supreme leadership of the Communist Party. In the 
National People's Assembly, women represent less than 
25% of the 3000 elected representatives.
In 1980 a law on marriage was promulgated. It 
confirms consensualism. Divorce can be done by mutual 
consent or at the unilateral request of the spouses. But 
in practice, the deceived wife is held responsible for 
the infidelity of her husband: she failed to preserve the 
harmony of the household. In 1985 the law recognized 
equality between male and female heirs.

3  See: Alain Wang, Les Chinois, Paris, Tallandier, 2018; Xinran, 
The good women of China, 2002.

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Article 48 of the 1982 Constitution stipulates that 
women have the same rights as men in all areas; in 1986, 
equality was enshrined in the Civil Code. A law was 
enacted in 1992 to protect the rights and interests of 
women. It was revised in 2002 and guarantees equal rights 
over the land holdings of husband and wife. However, 
an opinion from the Supreme Court confirmed in 2014 
that the property of a couple must belong to the one who 
signed the related documents. The title of ownership of 
the house or apartment, the statutes of a company or the 
contracts of land exploitation rarely bear the signature 
of the wife. In 2011, 60% of the title deeds and 65% of 
the agricultural contracts mentioned bear a unique name: 
that of the husband. A recent inheritance law prohibited a 
girl from being disinherited for the benefit of her brother, 
which was a persistent practice.
During the 1990s, layoffs became massive in stateowned and collective enterprises that went bankrupt, 
restructured or privatized. The women were asked to 
return home.
A city girl earns on average 30% less than her 
male counterpart. The 2005 law on gender equality 
in employment has not changed anything. Half of the 
companies that make up the Shanghai Stock Index have 
no women on their executive committees. A third of 
women say they are harassed at work. The rise in the 
precariousness of women promotes the development 
of prostitution. In 2014, the Ministry of Public Security 
estimated the number of prostitutes from three to 6 million.
§ 2. Marriage in urban areas
Conciliation is always preferred. The Conciliation 
Councils, which were inactive during the Cultural 
Revolution, were reinstated. They handle ten times more 
cases than the courts. Civil procedure also emphasizes 
the importance of conciliation.
In large cities, arranged marriages have become 
rare. But the mothers persist in playing the role of 
intermediaries. Public parks discreetly host “bursaries 
for singles” where matchmakers take care of one hundred 
Yuan to write an ad.
Nine out of ten men want to marry young women 
under the age of 27 because of the “biological clock”. 
Beyond this age, single women are called shengnu, 
women "which nobody wants". A Chinese proverb says: 
“They are 36 virtues, but all disappear if you have no 
child”. One think that women who have no children bring 
misfortune to nurselings.
Today, the middle class is returning to ceremonial 
weddings, which maybe can be compared to potlatch. 
Families show their social status and the extent of their 
relationships. Spending on organizing weddings in 
major cities averages € 20,000. Families host a banquet, 
with sometimes hundreds of guests. The husband must 
furnish the furniture and household appliances. The car 
will be provided by the wife or her family. Three out of 
five unions do not result in the signing of any marriage 
contract.

In the urban middle class, young people wish leave 
old customs. In the absence of financial security from 
either party, they choose “naked marriage” (luohu) 
without the consent of their families. Patience in conjugal 
relationships is no longer the rule: you quickly divorce 
in case of disagreement. In 9 out of 10 separations, the 
decision belongs to the woman, as in Europe. But in rural 
areas, shame hangs over divorced women who can no 
longer return to live with their families in their native 
village.
Some couples do not live together: the husband simply 
comes to spend certain nights of the week with his wife. 
The trend is for common-law unions in urban centers 
where individual private space is the rule in the middle 
class.
However, single mothers are very frowned upon. 
Although celibacy is perceived as a mark of immaturity 
or social maladjustment, the number of single people 
is increasing. By 2030.30 million Chinese people will 
experience forced celibacy due to four decades of 
restrictive family planning which has altered the natural 
ratio between the number of men and women. This 
phenomenon could be accentuated with the change in 
the mentality of women graduates living in cities, who 
choose to remain alone and favor professional success.
The one-child policy has tended to reverse the 
traditional family hierarchy: attention is now focused on 
this child, the large siblings have disappeared. Married 
or not, young people leave their families to escape their 
parents' grip. The majority of 60-year-olds live alone. In 
the countryside, they are even more numerous. At the 
end of 2017, there were around 12,500 private retirement 
homes.
The appearance of retirement homes all around the 
world is the sign of profound change in relations between 
elders and young people.
Which a contrario revealed by two laws in China. 
In 1996 a law instituted the economic responsibility of 
young adults towards their parents; in 2013 another law 
established the obligation for children to regularly visit 
their parents.
§ 3. Marriage in rural areas
In the countryside, where half the Chinese population 
resides, the reality is different.
Surveys show that two thirds of women between 
the ages of 18 and 25 are looking for a dashu (“greatuncle”), ten years older, who can ensure a stable union. 
The men remain attached to the virginity of the future 
wife. Parents still use the intermediary and the astrologer.
Peasants in remote countryside sometimes resort to 
marriage by purchase. The young girls are kidnapped or 
come from North Korea, Vietnam, Burma from Laos in 
search of better living conditions.
But cross-border marriages are under the control of 
criminal gangs.
Among peasants, the preference for boys remains very 
strong, because it is essential for carrying out work in 

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the fields. The ancestral practice of girls' infanticide is 
emerging again. Among national minorities, the limit of 
three children has never been respected.
In rural areas, girls receive little family support. From 
high school, they are excluded more quickly from school 
curricula. In the poorest rural areas, they are sacrificed 
in favor of their older brothers, when the family cannot 
afford to send two children to school at the same time.
However, the creation of businesses in towns and 
villages during the 1980s changed the way of life of many 
peasant women who discovered a new way of life and 
acquired a form of financial independence thanks to the 
fixed daily wage.
In practice, in the countryside, girls do not inherit 
because they will benefit from their husband's inheritance 
in his family. The boy's family therefore bears most of 
the costs of the marriage. It is not, however, a purchase 
marriage, as a dowry from the girl's family is always 
possible. On the other hand, once married, it is always 
the wife who keeps the finances of the family.
There are two types of marriage. The first marriage 
is by presentation (jieshao). A third present the potential 
spouse. This third party can be a relative, a friend, or a 
professional matchmaker who will receive remuneration. 
The second marriage is said to be free (ziyou) and would 
correspond to the love marriage.
But the fate of young migrant women is uncertain. 
Many become domestic workers, housekeepers, or 
babysit children and the elderly in families of the new 
bourgeoisie. These are domestic jobs, which disappeared 
under Mao Dze Dong. 15 million women have been placed 
by companies which negotiate informal agreements 
without respecting the regulations of the Ministry of 
Labor on the protection of service people. One third of 
migrant women have received vocational training; the 
others, often in an illegal situation, have no employment 
contract and have very difficult living conditions.
§ 4. Marriage in national minorities of South 
China4
In the years after the Communist Party took power, a 
number of measures were taken in favor of minorities. 
Autonomy status was granted to them during the 1950s. 
Autonomy status was granted if the population of one 
ethnic group exceeded 30% of the total population. In 
the 1990s efforts were made to develop minority regions, 
in particular to enable peasants to reach a level of food 
self-sufficiency. In southern China, minorities inhabit the 
provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi. Peasants 
still use traditional medicine from village healers. In 
most villages, rituals are practiced to expel demons 
from the body of the sick, consisting of offerings and 
incantations with magical powers. In these regions, the 
application of family planning rules has not always been 
strict. Families of four to six children are not uncommon. 

4  See: Françoise Grenot-Wang, Chine du Sud-la mosaïque des 
minorités, Paris, les Indes savantes, 2017.

The persistence of matrimonial customs differs greatly 
according to ethnic groups.
Among the Yi Talu people in Yongsheng district, 
the ancient matrimonial custom of group marriage has 
continued. Some women do not marry all their lives, 
living with their lover of the moment and with the 
children they have conceived with them. Young girls are 
very free and before adulthood, they have to go and live 
in a common house, called “stable”, where they have free 
sex. Birth is a dirty act. The husband must not see his 
wife in childbirth. The latter does not go out for a month 
after birth so as not to offend the god of the door; she 
must not make a fire so as not to offend the god of the 
home. The child receives gifts from the maternal uncle.
Among the Bai, of Dali, in Yunnan, the matrimonial 
system is monogamic. The marriage is arranged by the 
parents, with the help of a matchmaker. On the day of 
the wedding, the bride leaves her parents in tears to go to 
her husband's palanquin. When she arrives, her husband's 
brother or friend carries her on their backs to the bedroom.
Clan structures persist, with a very rigid separation 
between generations. In the same generation, the older 
brother's child takes precedence over the children of other 
siblings, regardless of age and gender. The clan leader 
must resolve conflicts.
Among the Hani, young people today still have 
complete freedom to court. They have a special house 
to meet. Marriages must receive parental consent, but 
betrothed people can also choose freely. After marriage, 
the boy can continue to seduce young girls, but the 
married woman must remain chaste.
The Mosuo are a branch of the Naxi, and have 30 000 
individuals. It is one of the few societies close to the 
matriarchy still in existence. The Mosuo still practice a 
kind of cohabitation called adolescent or azhu, depending 
on the location. Young people meet during field work, 
festivals or religious activities. If a boy takes an object 
belonging to a girl and the girl responds with a smile, 
it is that she agrees to enter into relationships. If she 
claims the stolen object, it is a refusal. The members 
of an azhu relationship do not live in a household, 
do not have a common purse, neither has the right of 
possession over the other. Everyone is free to have other 
azhu relationships. This type of relationship can be 
established with several azhu, most women generally 
have successively six azhu, including two lasting and 
four temporary. To end the relationship, the girl closes 
the door and does not respond when the boy knocks on 
the door. The Mosuos argue that the notions of possession 
and jealousy do not exist in this type of relationship. The 
authorities have encouraged monogamous marriage since 
1949, with more or less success.
Among the Buyi, arranged marriages persist, despite 
the official ban. These marriages can lead to suicide 
cases.
The Zhuang are the most numerous national minority: 
around 16 million people. They are monogamous. 

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Marriages were either arranged or by consent. Today, 
in some villages, the young man still has to bring in a 
matchmaker to apply for marriage. She makes four visits 
to the girl's family. At the fourth visit, if an agreement 
from the girl's parents has been obtained, she brings gifts. 
A date is then set for the engagement and the boy brings 
gifts.
These various examples therefore show that in certain 
national minorities in southern China, despite the various 
laws which have succeeded each other for more than half 
a century, matrimonial customs still exist.
B) Russia: Recognition of minorities and aboriginal 
peoples5
The Soviet Union and present-day Russia are federal 
States, contrary to China and France. A priori, the 
federalism allows a easier representation of the minorities 
and indigenous peoples.
The Russian Empire, known as Tsarist Russia, 
described by Lenin as a “jail of peoples”, was an 
unitary State, while granting certain institutional 
autonomy to certain regions. But the rise of nationalist 
and revolutionary movements forced to seek solutions 
to soften the absolutist political regime and the too 
rigid territorial organization. Like the British Empire, 
territories were called differently: kingdoms (tsarstvo) 
of Poland and Finland, large regions (kraj or oblast) or 
governorates (goubernija) with such different statutes. 
They were therefore the beginnings of a certain 
federalism. The drafts of the Constitutions circulating 
from the 18th century took into account the ideas of the 
Age of Enlightenment and the experiences of the federal 
States of the time, primarily the Swiss Confederation and 
the United States.
In the camp of the Bolsheviks, the rulers of Soviet 
Russia, the battle of ideas was rather fierce.
Lenin, in his writings on the national problem, defends 
and develops the idea of the self-determination of nations 
up to the right of secession and the creation of their own 
States, without using the notion of sovereignty to which 
he was allergic. For rather tactical but also doctrinal 
reasons, Lenin revises the postulates of classical Marxism 
and introduces the concept of self-determination of the 
people, in a way a substitute for the sovereignty of the 
people. Having lived in Switzerland for a long time, 
he advocated the Swiss model of the organization of a 
multinational state.
On the other hand, Stalin who passed for “a great 
specialist in national problems” was openly in favor of 
the strong central State, but accepted a certain margin 
of cultural and linguistic autonomy of the nations 
populating the country. But, as a compromise with Lenin, 
he accepted the federative form of the State.

5  See: Anatoli Kovler, L'anthropologie juridique russe, Droit et 
Cultures, 50/2009-2, pp. 1—15. Translation in chinese language 
by Pr . Weichen forthcoming; Le fédéralisme russe à la croisée 
des chemins, publication in french forthcoming. 

Soviet power opted for Lenin's plan: on December 30, 
1922, the creation of the Soviet Union was declared, the 
Union Treaty of which provided for the sovereignty of 
the republics forming part of the Union. The first Soviet 
constitution of 1924 like those of 1936 and 1977 take up 
this option.
Until 1991, the year of the collapse of the USSR, the 
signs of sovereignty of 15 Soviet republics were carefully 
respected: each republic had its constitution, its hymn, 
its official national language on par with Russian, its 
parliament and government etc. The reality was more 
complex given the obvious centralizing tendencies, 
especially during forced industrialization and the war.
But this picture of territorial and political organization 
was more complicated: apart from 15 sovereign Soviet 
republics there were as many “autonomous republics” 
within the Soviet republics, but also autonomous regions 
and districts and regions (oblast). So most nations and 
ethnicities had “their” territory, with different statuses 
depending on the number of inhabitants.
This mosaic somehow preserved national or ethnic 
authenticity, despite the russification, evident in practice.
The era of liberalization called perestroika 
(reconstruction) opened the sovereignty hit-parade when, 
one after another, the republics — already having all the 
outward signs of sovereignty — proclaimed their true 
sovereignty and total independence.
Russia proclaimed sovereignty on June 12, 1991, while 
other republics made the same proclamation. The new 
Constitution was adopted after lengthy discussion on 
December 12, 1993.
Another feature of the constitutional legal language in 
Russia must be underlined: in legislative texts, including 
the 1993 Constitution, two concepts are distinguished: 
“national minority” and “indigenous people”. National 
minorities are representatives of peoples whose "territory 
of attachment" is outside Russia. For example, hundreds 
of thousands of Ukrainians, Georgians, Moldovans, etc., 
established in Russia and having Russian citizenship. 
They have all the rights of ordinary citizens, but in 
addition can establish their schools, clubs, associations.
As for the “small indigenous peoples” (art. 69), are 
qualified as such the ethnic groups of Siberia and the Far 
East whose traditional way of life and economic activity 
are the object of special protection. A series of federal and 
regional laws has been adopted for this purpose. Some 
of these peoples have “their” territory — autonomous 
districts or territorial units where their language and 
customs are valued. Finally, according to Article 68 § 3 of 
the Constitution “The Russian Federation guarantees to 
all its peoples the right to the preservation of the national 
language and the creation of conditions for its learning 
and promotion”. This peculiarity of the multinational 
State explains such a mosaic of the territorial structure 
of the Federation.
This explains that russian legal anthropology has been 
innovative in several areas.

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First, the field investigation: several russian researchers 
have done it before Malinowski. Maxime Kovalevski 
undertook field research on social relations and property 
relations among the Ossetians, a caucasian population, 
in the 1880s. Nikolai Mikloukho Maklay (1846—1888) 
studied coastal populations in New Guinea and, before 
Lévi-Strauss, wanted to prove that traditional societies 
are not “primitive” societies, in the evolutionary sense 
of the term.
Moreover, when one briefly examines history, one 
realizes that from the time of the Tsarist period, for 
autocrats as they were, the governments stimulated the 
study of the customary law of the populations that the 
Empire absorbed. Many questionnaires were written in 
such a way that indigenous customs were better known. 
From this point of view, the russian experience resembles 
North American, in that indigenous peoples were located 
on the very territory of the dominant state. While in 
Europe, anthropology has developed from ultra-marine 
colonies.
During the soviet period, interest in legal anthropology 
did not decline. Anthropologist jurists were getting closer 
to their fellow ethnologists. The most brilliant personality 
of this period was Vladimir Bogoraz (1865—1936). 
Scientific periodicals, including the famous Sovetskaja 
Etnografia, had thousands of readers. Today, legal 
anthropology is taught in twenty universities,
The russian administration, first of all Soviet, 
succeeded in stimulating the formation of indigenous 
elites who collaborated with it. Between 1920 and 1924, 
out of 264 Soviet leaders, 119 were not russian. Lenin 
had understood that a balance had to be maintained 
between what he called on the one hand Great-Russian 
chauvinism, and on the other hand, the nationalism of 
the republics. Moreover, contrary to certain predictions, 
the Soviet Union has not disappeared because of the 
centrifugal force of the nationalities. As we know, it 
imploded. But it is true that the peripheral republics 
hastened to take advantage of this implosion. Today, 
Vladimir Putin names them: “The near abroad”.
C) France: Negation of national minorities
Like China, France is an unitarian State. But contrary 
to China, France does not recognize on its soil the 
existence of national minorities. When France ratifies 
international instruments concerning them (or aboriginal 
peoples), it exercises its right of reservation on the 
passages of the texts concerning these human groups. 
The Constitutional Council has issued a decision in which 
it expressly states that in France no collective rights can 
be recognized for any group. There is only one single 
french people. The history of french colonial law is one of 
the foundations of positive law in this field. I cannot trace 
in a few lines the legal history of european colonization, 
particularly the french one. Let us say that in Black 
Africa, almost all the colonial States have guaranteed 
the respect of customs and customs peculiar to colonized 
peoples. Great Britain preferred indirect administration, 

France the direct one. But various procedures were used 
which all had the effect of shifting the frontier between 
indigenous and modern rights for the benefit of the 
latter, whether these native rights were considered to 
be contrary to civilization, or inconvenient for colonial 
domination. Interested persons may have the right to 
adopt modern law for the performance of a particular 
legal act, or more generally to renounce personal status. 
But the return to personal status was forbidden until 
a recent time. Modern law replaces traditional law in 
certain subjects because of the principle of colonial 
public order.
Jurisdictional dualism was ambiguous. Traditional 
courts could only apply traditional law, whereas State 
courts could pronounce themselves in modern law, but 
also in traditional law, when one of the parties was of 
modern status and the other of traditional status, or when 
two parties of traditional status chose to exercise their 
option of jurisdiction in favor of the state court. On the 
other hand, any judge, whether traditional or State, could 
make modern law prevail over traditional law if it was 
contrary to the colonial public order or did not offer a 
solution considered reasonable and sufficient. France, like 
Russia, also made extensive inquiries into indigenous 
customs, culminating in the drafting of customaries. 
But the spirit was different. At the end of the twentieth 
century, the socialist Jules Ferry had affirmed that it was 
a duty for the higher races (sic) to colonize the lower races 
in order to bring them progress. And the colonization 
was mainly advocated by the left parties, conservative 
parties wishing to recover the provinces of Alsace and 
the Moselle over Germany.
In 1905, Governor Roume ordered judges to gather 
information that would form the basis of a customary 
general. But the instructions he gives were very clear: 
“Our firm intention to respect customs cannot create the 
obligation to remove them from the action of progress, to 
prevent their regulation or improvement. With the help of 
the native courts themselves, it will be possible gradually 
to bring about a rational classification, a generalization 
of usages compatible with the social condition of the 
inhabitants, and to render these usages more and more 
in conformity not with our legal doctrines. metropolitan 
areas that may be opposed, but to the fundamental 
principles of natural law, the primary source of all 
legislation”. In 1931, another governor, Delavignette, 
criticized the Roume doctrine in very lucid terms: “What 
is an african custom where sentences are europeanized? 
[...] When we say that we judge according to custom, 
we mean that we begin by judging the custom itself 
according to the code”.
In fact, the texts which have been written have 
hardly ever been used. The questionnaires were very 
ethnocentric, and the investigators were not trained in 
ethnological methods.
With the end of colonization in the sixties, the 
colonial law ends, but begins that of the overseas, 

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that is to say, territories that have chosen to remain 
french, named territorial communities overseas. A 
special visa is necessary for foreigners who want to go 
there. These territories have various statutes, ranging 
from departmentalization to autonomy. Some, such 
as New Caledonia, enjoy the personal status provided 
by Article 75 of the Constitution. Polynesia and New 
Caledonia can make laws of the country, applicable only in 
their territories, subject to the control of constitutionality. 
But in all cases it is very distant territories compared to 
the metropolis.
French spirit is more uniformity rather than diversity 
and multi-ethnism.
There were some facts of plurality of norms.
What about the theories?
Part II: Theories of Legal Pluralism6
A) Law and Custom in legal anthropology
Legal pluralism could be broadly defined as the 
existence, within a given society, of several systems of law. 
We will return later to this definition, which was criticized 
for being too imprecise. It implies that different legal 
mechanisms apply to identical situations. For example, 
during the colonial period, the distinction between the 
private law of the native is that of the colonizer. In 1941, 
in Cheyenne Way, Llewellyn and Hoebel had already 
insisted that the procedure for the settlement of a conflict 
will not be the same depending on the subgroup in which 
it takes place. When the parties belong to the same group, 
compromise procedures will be favored. When they belong 
to distinct groups, it will rather be revenge.
The distinction between law and custom, also known 
as Folk law, is at the center of the debate.
Talking about legal pluralism therefore implies 
returning to the problem of the definition of custom in 
legal anthropology, as well as the distinction between 
standards and processes, a classic debate in this discipline. 
We will then come to the presentations of some theories 
of legal pluralism.
The legal anthropologist has a broader view of 
custom than that of the lawyer. For the lawyer, when 
it is oral, it has practically no value. It only begins to 
acquire legitimacy when it is written, but does a written 
custom really remain a custom? On the other hand, many 
traditional societies have not known writing. Does that 
mean they lived without law? Of course not. Likewise, 
traditional societies are often considered to be simpler 
than modern societies, described as complex. But isn't 
that an illusion due to what we can call the “wall of 
writing”? These societies have not left written texts, no 
great monuments like the Empires, and their works of 
art are often difficult to interpret. But that's not enough 
reason to say that they worked in a rudimentary way.

6  See: Norbert Rouland, Legal Anthropology, Stanford 
University Press, Stanford, California, 1994. Translated in 
chinese by Pr. Liu Yun Fei, Guiyang University (Publication in 
China forthcoming).

The custom often consists of gestures, ways of saying 
and doing.
For example, in one of his last books, Anthropology 
facing the problems of the modern world7, Claude LéviStrauss comments on Japanese society(maybe valid, this 
is to be verified by chinese scholars), to chinese society.
The japanese carpenter uses the saw and planer upside 
down from western artisans. It saws and planes towards 
himself, not by pushing outwards. The japanese cooker 
who fry, unlike the european cooker, will not say that 
she immerses the ingredients in the fry, but that she lifts 
or raises the fry. A japanese who is absent for a short 
time (to buy the newspaper,or to put a letter in the post), 
to signify this short absence to those around him, will 
not say that he is leaving, but that he will soon return . 
For a Japanese, the trip is often described as a painful 
experience, marked by the desire to return to Japan as 
soon as possible.
The anthropologist links all of these isolated facts. He 
will notice that it is always a question of bringing towards 
oneself, or of bringing oneself inward. It is an attitude 
different from that which consists in initially posing the 
subject as an autonomous and already constituted entity. 
The Japanese “me” is not an original datum, but a result 
towards which we tend, without any certainty of reaching 
it. Descartes' famous phrase “I think, therefore I am” is 
strictly untranslatable into Japanese.
We also know that in asian languages, the pronominal 
form "I" is much less frequent than in western languages.
Similarly, in his book The Amazon and the CookAnthropology of the Sexual Division of Labor, the french 
anthropologist Alain Testart examines certain gestures in 
order to better understand the division of labor between 
men and women in most corporations.
He notes, for example, that hard materials, like metal, 
wood, stone, are almost always worked by men. On the 
other hand, soft or flexible materials, such as for weaving 
and pottery, are mainly used by women. Among the 185 
traditional societies studied by Murdoch, 37 had a small 
iron and steel industry, which was the exclusive domain 
of men.
To study the law, the french jurist compares legal 
texts, often codified. The comparatist juxtaposes legal 
texts, without taking much account of their cultural 
and historical context. And the western comparatists 
make very little room for non-western laws. The law 
anthropologist is subject to other requirements, the first 
of which is the identification of legal categories.
One of the most important problems in legal 
anthropology is that of the universality of legal categories.
A debate on this subject took place between two great 
anthropologists, P. J. Bohannan and Max Gluckman. 
For Bohannan, the use of western legal categories and 
concepts used in the analysis of traditional legal systems 

7  See: Claude Levi Strauss, L'anthropologie face aux problèmes 
du monde moderne, Paris, Le Seuil, 2011, pp. 36—39. 

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12

should be prohibited. On the contrary, we must privilege 
those of the native culture. For Max Gluckman, a thinker 
influenced by marxism, such an attitude risks leading 
to making the comparative approach impossible. In 
studying the Barotse of Rhodesia, Gluckman had 
highlighted analogies between the Barotse kingdom 
and the English Middle Ages, and had considered it 
possible to apply to Barotse land law concepts belonging 
to the history of english law. Continuing his reflection, 
he thought he had found in the notion of “reasonable 
man” a universal legal concept. Any society, to judge 
the behavior of an individual, refers to behavior — type, 
that which a reasonable man would have followed in the 
same circumstances.
The answer must be nuanced. There are many universal 
categories of thought: legal / prohibited, beautiful / ugly, 
just / unjust and universal legal concepts: marriage, 
divorce, parentage, etc. On the other hand, certain legal 
categories that western thinkers inherited from Roman 
law are often untransposable as they are: real / personal, 
private / public rights, patrimonial / extra patrimonial, 
movable / immovable, etc.
As far as I'm concerned, I would tend to be on 
Bohannan's side for the methodology. It seems impossible 
to study a system different from that of the observer 
without taking into account the categories of the observed 
society. It is therefore essential to collect indigenous 
legal terms and formulations. It is only once these 
have been identified that we can then decide whether 
or not they have equivalents in our own legal system. 
Glucksmann's concept of a reasonable man, which could 
also be translated as a good man, is interesting. It allows 
cross-comparisons between companies. Each society can 
have its own idea of  what human rights are, and it is not 
excluded that on certain points (prohibition of wrongful 
murder, slavery, torture, infanticide, etc.) the ideals of 
various societies come together and form what one might 
call a hard core.
According to their cultural legal affiliations, the 
authors will insist either on the standards, possibly 
codified; or on the processes, which they will discover 
above all thanks to the analysis of the methods of conflict 
resolution.
Normative analysis corresponds to countries with a 
civil law tradition, such as France. The law essentially 
consists of a certain number of explicit written standards, 
contained in texts most often gathered in codes. Common 
Law lawyers favor judgment and judicial precedents over 
codified standards. Authors like Bohannan consider that 
the conflict is not pathological, but that it is an inevitable 
and positive adaptive process.
For a legal anthropologist, normative analysis has 
many flaws. It results in rejecting many societies, 
centralized or not, outside the law. And the identification 
of the law to abstract and explicit corpus of rules narrows 
the field of law to western societies. However, apart from 
the western, few societies, like China under the Ch'in 

dynasty (221-206 BC), or the Aztecs, have a normative 
conception of the law. Let's take a concrete example.
If you ask for a Comanche Indian:
“What rule does one apply in the event of the abduction 
of a woman abducted from her husband by a member of 
the tribe?”
It is likely that the Indian will answer:
“I do not know ... but I remember that there are many 
moons, when my mother's sister was taken from her 
husband by So-and-so, we act as follows ...”.
In China, as we have seen, for most of its history, the 
chinese people have considered that moral precepts and 
conciliation should be preferred to law. At most, the laws 
were only to serve as a model and were not mandatory. 
Furthermore, even in modern western societies, citizens 
often ignore the law, or occasionally learn about it 
through the media. Or in the event of a traffic violation, 
a divorce, a dispute relating to the ownership or rental of 
his apartment.
We can therefore see by these few remarks that 
normative analysis can only account for part of the legal 
phenomena, and only in certain societies.
B) Main theories of legal pluralism
Like any theory, that of legal pluralism must be 
contextualized.
Legal pluralism is a doctrine that developed during the 
20th century, and can largely be interpreted as a reaction 
to legal evolutionism, which dominated the 19th century.
Unilinear evolutionism considers human societies as 
a coherent and unitary whole, subject to laws of global 
and general transformation, which make all societies 
go through identical forms in their content and their 
succession. Traditional societies were called primitive and 
modern western societies are civilized. There followed 
a number of dichotomies. Primitive societies knew 
only private vengeance, custom, status, large family. 
On the side of civilized societies: the state punishment 
(substituted to private revenge), the law, the contract, the 
nuclear family.
From the end of the 19th century, criticism rose. The 
authors insist on the diversity of human societies, on 
the fact that one can also find concepts attributed to 
civilized societies in traditional societies, and that there 
are no universal laws applying to all societies. In the 
20th century, certain neo-evolutionary authors brought 
new theses of evolutionism. Not all societies go through 
the same stages, but overall, there is indeed a transition 
from the simple to the complex, the general sense of 
evolution being placed under the sign of the increase in 
legal standards, without the societies with “Minimal law” 
should be considered qualitatively inferior to the others.
The various theories of legal pluralism are oriented 
differently, insofar as they insist on the coexistence in any 
society of several legal systems which can be centered 
around very different values. All societies, traditional and 
modern, are plural, but the former recognize it, while 
the latter tend to deny it in the sense of the exclusivity