Bertram Turner

Competing global players in rural Morocco: upgrading legal arenas

Abstract This paper analyses the socio-legal consequences of the competition between different transnational actors for the opportunity to implement their respective legal standards in a plural legal constellation in rural Morocco. The empirical data presented here refer to a rural community located in the centre of the Souss region in South West Morocco. The thesis in this paper is that focussing on the competition between global players for local control reveals that competition accelerates the dynamics of transnational-state-local interaction. Moreover, it seems that transnational-local interaction in a four-way constellation composed of two opposing types of competing global players, the state, and local actors, is much more complex than in a constellation with just one isolated transnational actor. It is argued that the rising degree of legal cross-referencing serves to boost the legal agency of local actors. Neither a revitalisation of tradition nor a strict rejection of interaction with external interveners has evolved, but rather, this interaction has had far reaching consequences for local power constellations and the way in which social conditions are reflected by the law. Thus, the socio-legal consequences of transnational intervention in the rural legal arena are examined along the different comparative axes reflected in these discourses: the potential for conflict and violent action; the impact on local identity; and the intention to link the local legal arena with transnational standardisation. Subsequently, the paper goes on to develop a concept of ‘empowered legal agency’ achieved by an emphasis on socio-legal identity and local culture.

Exploring avenues of research in legal pluralism: forward-looking perspectives in the work of Franz von Benda-Beckmann

This introduction to the special issue in commemoration of Franz von Benda-Beckmann revisits central theses in his intellectual oeuvre, which spans more than 45 years. Some of his publications long ago acquired the status of classics in the field of legal anthropology and studies in legal pluralism. This article asks how we can profit from his uncanny ability to identify the next decisive problems and emerging challenges to the analysis of law in society. This introduction distils out of Franz von Benda-Beckmanns rich legacy a number of forward-looking perspectives that constitute valuable contributions to ongoing and future-oriented debates. Developments in the legal sphere that increasingly have attracted interest in legal anthropology are foregrounded. The literature discussed in the article provides a wide array of arguments useful for the exploration of new horizons within the anthropological study of legal phenomena.

Neoliberal Politics of Resource Extraction: Moroccan Argan Oil

This article addresses the intertwining and co-production of normative and technological strands in the politics of natural resource extraction. It explores how the integration of a forest resource in the global economy by means of normative and technological appropriation is associated with the delegation of responsibility for its conservation and the sustainability of its extraction management to local-use rights holders. In the process, such entanglements involve the commodification of a local staple as a niche product exploitable on a global scale. The transformation of the access rights of local people into responsibilities is addressed as an implicit form of ‘de facto soft land and resource grabbing’ (e.g. Zoomers 2010; Sassen 2013; Seufert 2013). This article aims to contribute to the ongoing debate around forms of ‘accumulation by dispossession’ (Harvey 2003; Kelly 2011; Corson 2011). The specific case study involves the emergence of argan oil on the world market.

Religious Subtleties in Disputing

In this chapter, I draw attention to disputes in rural Morocco that underscore the fact that, in certain localities, normatively defined fault lines between the secular and the sacred can fluctuate along temporal vectors. The mise-en-scene of these events is the weekly market, which in itself constitutes an interface between economic, religious, and legal activities. Ethnographic vignettes of disputes in the market show how the assessment of human behavior in local disputes is informed by spatial and temporal parameters, and how legal and faith-based aspects converge in these parameters.

Supply-chain legal pluralism : normativity as constitutive of chain infrastructure in the Moroccan argan oil supply chain

ABSTRACT This article foregrounds the variety and intertwining of legal components that inform the performance of global supply chains. It sheds light on the complexities of normative entanglements that are only cursorily addressed in conventional analyses of chain normativity, which can be divided into roughly three approaches: the first one addresses “voluntary” or “private” standards that are subsumed under the heading of “corporate social responsibility”. Second, there is chain law analysis proper as an emerging field in legal studies. Finally, there is a body of literature addressing the interactions between “public” and “private” regulation. In this article, I go beyond these approaches. I argue that, first, other-than-law components of a supply chain, such as technology, also exercise normative power and increase legal complexity inherent in chains. I suggest that the concept of infrastructure as developed in science and technology studies helps us to analyse the interaction of legal and non-legal chain components. Second, I demonstrate that all this chain normativity interacts with the plural legal environment in which chain activities are embedded. The specific case study involves the emergence of Moroccan argan oil on the world market and selectively explores steps in the construction of a “global argan value chain”.

Bibliography: Franz von Benda-Beckmann

Benda-Beckmann, F. v. 1970. Rechtspluralismus in Malawi: Geschichtliche Entwicklung und heutige Problematik des pluralistischen Rechtssystems eines ehemals britischen Kolonialgebiets (Legal pluralism in Malawi: Historical developments and present problems of the plural legal system of a former British colony). M€unchen: Weltforum Verlag. Benda-Beckmann, F. v. 1979. Property in social continuity: Continuity and change in the maintenance of property relationships through time in Minangkabau, West Sumatra. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff. Benda-Beckmann, F. v. Editor. 1981. Rechtsantropologie in Nederland. Themanummer Sociologische Gids no. 4. Meppel: Boom. Benda-Beckmann, F. v. 2000. Properti dan kesinambungan sosial. Jakarta: Grasindo. Benda-Beckmann, F. v. 2007. Legal pluralism in Malawi. Historical development 18581970 and emerging issues. Kachere Monographs no. 24. Zomba, Malawi: Kachere Series.