Iuaes Commission on Folk Law and Legal Pluralism

In 1978, the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES) established, on the initiative of Geert van den Steenhoven, of the Institute of Folk Law (Nijmegen, Netherlands), the Commission on Folk Law and Legal Pluralism, which affiliated with the International Association of Legal Science (IALS). In 2006, more than 350 lawyers, anthropologists, and other social scientists, representing all regions of the world, are concerned with folk law in both theory and practice and participate in the activities of the Commission.

This reflects a growing awareness of the contemporary existence of legal plurality, not only in countries with indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities but also in industrialized societies. The Commission's primary purpose is to further knowledge and understanding of folk law and legal pluralism, with a ...