Approaches to the relation of law and society have for a long time seen law as either autonomous or self-grounded in society. This book is a radically new approach that sees law as both derived from and constitutive of its surrounding social and cultural context. Drawing on the work of major theorists, this book examines the nature of law as it has descended from the Enlightenment, through to colonialism and now globalization. It is a significant contribution to legal philosophy, jurisprudence and socio-legal studies.

The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was set up to deal with the human rights violations of apartheid. However, the TRC's restorative justice approach did not always serve the needs of communities at a local level. Based on extended anthropological fieldwork, this book illustrates the impact of the TRC in urban African communities in Johannesburg. It argues that the TRC had little effect on popular ideas of justice as retribution. This provocative study deepens our understanding of post-apartheid South Africa and the use of human rights discourse.

Martin Chanock's definitive perspective on the development of South Africa's legal system in the early twentieth century examines all areas of the law: criminal law and criminology; the Roman-Dutch law; the State's African law; Land, Labour and "Rule of Law" questions. His revisionist analysis of the South African legal culture illustrates the larger processes of legal colonization, while the consideration of the interaction between imported doctrine and legislative models with local contexts and approaches also provides a basis for understanding the refashioning of law under circumstances of...

A close study of lawyers who practise occupational safety and health law in the US.