Nicole Roughan

The Relative Authority of Law: A Contribution to 'Pluralist Jurisprudence'

A key challenge facing philosophers of law is to account for the increasing significance of inter-state, supra-state, and non-state law. This paper suggests that these instances of law cannot simply be treated as marginal interests in ‘legal pluralism,’ because they unsettle conventional understandings of law’s authority. I argue that the plurality of law in practice requires a ‘pluralist jurisprudence,’ and I offer a theory of legal authority in which authority is plural and relative rather than singular and exclusive. The concept of relative authority can help overcome the obstacles to pluralist jurisprudence, and serve as a building block for a pluralist theory of law.In Del Mar (ed), New Waves in Philosophy of Law, Del Mar (ed),2011, Palgrave Macmillan. Reproduced with permission of Palgrave Macmillan.

In Pursuit of Pluralist Jurisprudence

The pluralist turn in jurisprudence has led to a search for new ways of thinking about law. The relationships between state law and other legal orders such as international, customary, transnational or indigenous law are particularly significant in this development. Collecting together new work by leading scholars in the field, this volume considers the basic questions about what would be an appropriate theoretical response to this shift: How precisely is it to be undertaken? Is it called for by developments in legal practice or are these adequately addressed by current legal theory? What normative challenges are raised, and what fresh promises might the pluralist turn hold? What distinctive insights can it offer for theorizing about law? This book presents a rich variety of resources drawn from a number of theoretical approaches and demonstrates how they might be brought together to generate an increasingly important pluralist jurisprudence. Programme Schedule 4.30pm Registration 5.00pm Welcome Address by Andrew Halpin Director, Centre for Legal Theory 5.05pm Comments by Alec Stone Sweet Saw Swee Hock Centennial Professor 5.20pm Responses by Co-Editors Nicole Roughan & Andrew Halpin 5.35pm Q&A 6.00pm Book Launch 6.05pm Cocktail Reception 7.00pm End