Understanding Law in Micronesia: An Interpretive Approach to Transplanted Law: 7 (Studies in Human Society, 7)

'This is an important and useful book, as much, and possibly more so, for its ability to enhance an appreciation for the nature of the law transplanted in Micronesia as for its explication of the changes wrought...' Jonathan Aleck, Pacific Affairs, 1994. 'L'interet du travail reside dans la description narrative des personnes et des faits remarquable.' Jeanne Marie Leonard, Etudes Theologiques et Religieuses, 1994.

This book examines law in Micronesia from a novel perspective. It draws upon several branches of interpretive analysis, including mundane phenomenology, symbolic interaction, and cultural hermeneutics, to construct a comprehensive approach to transplanted systems of state law. Rather than the usual focus on legal norms and institutions, this approach directs attention to the law-related meaningful actions and understandings of legal actors and of non-legal actors. Application of this approach results in insights about law in Micronesia, as well as about law itself, and about the ideology of law. A wide range of subjects are addressed, from the nature of legal thinking to the autonomy of law. It is a work in legal theory grounded in psychological, sociological and anthropological observations and analysis.