Denial, Deferral and Translation: Dynamics of Entangling and Disentangling State and Non-state Law in Postcolonial Spaces

Berger T (2021)

Publication Type: Authored book

Publication year: 2021

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

ISBN: 9781108914642

Abstract

This chapter focuses on legal entanglements between international, state and non-state law in postcolonial societies. While undoubtedly a very heterogeneous category that unavoidably escapes reductionist attempts at homogenisation, it argues that those places where colonial powers institutionalized plural legal orders as explicit strategies for the consolidation of their rule constitute a privileged site for the investigation of entangled legalities. This chapter analyses such entanglements by focusing on the dialectic dynamics of approximation and distancing, which unfold between different sets of norms. It identifies three ways in which these dynamics can play out: denial, deferral and translation. The empirical backdrop of this chapter are three vignettes, which illustrate different dynamics of entanglement between international, state and non-state law in contemporary Bangladesh: (1) the Supreme Court’s attempt to ban Islamic fatwas in 2001 (denial); (2) the violent protests this has triggered and the subsequent decision of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court to stay the verdict for over a decade (deferral); and (3) the work of local activists who, regardless of constitutional developments, seek to carve out emancipatory spaces for marginalized people by simultaneously drawing on multiple normative registers, including Islamic and international human rights norms (translation).

Involved external institutions

Freie Universität Berlin

Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Berger, T. (2021). Denial, Deferral and Translation: Dynamics of Entangling and Disentangling State and Non-state Law in Postcolonial Spaces. Cambridge University Press.

MLA:

Berger, Tobias. Denial, Deferral and Translation: Dynamics of Entangling and Disentangling State and Non-state Law in Postcolonial Spaces. Cambridge University Press, 2021.

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