法律是什么?——一个安排秩序的分类体系

从人类学的角度看,法律是一个安排秩序的分类体系,它安排了事物、行为、意义的秩序。每个社会、每种文化都有它与众不同的分类体系,由此产生了作为“地方性知识”的法律的多元格局。地方性规范比国家法律容纳了更富多元性的人们对人生意义的思考等非技术性意义因素,法律多元因此不可避免。不同的分类体系之间的差异会导致法律冲突的发生,但是作为不同分类体系的国家法律与地方性规范之间仍然有可沟通性。对于国家的法治建设来讲,不是如何去消除多元法律,而是如何处理差别。

What Is Law?——A taxonomic system in arranging the order

From the anthropologic prospective,law is a taxonomic system in arranging the order,It sets such orders as thing,act and sense.Since there exist unique taxonomic systems in different societies and cultures,the pluralistic structures of law as“local knowledge” are formed.The local regulations can contain the factors of non-technological sense such as thinking about the sense of human life,and so it is inevitable to form the pluralistic pattern in law. Though the divergence among different systems will lead to the conflicts of laws, the national law and local regulation can be linked up.It is better for the construction of governing by law to how to deal with the difference among pluralistic laws instead of how to remove it.