Michel Coutu

Le Pluralisme juridique chez Gunther Teubner: La nouvelle guerre des dieux?.

From the perspective of the systems theory, Gunther Teubner provides a meaningful contribution to the theory of legal pluralism. Borrowing from Max Webers idea of a polytheism of values, Teubner shows the relevance for contemporary society of the Weberian metaphor of the struggle of the gods, although shifting the analysis towards the properly sociological ground of a plurality of discourses and systemic rationalities. This reconstruction of the theory of legal pluralism in the wider context of a fragmentation of autonomous spheres of rationality enables Teubner to avoid some of the obstacles which often affect the pluralist view of law, such as a monolithical representation of State law and the absence of a clear notion of what is distinctively legal.