The Social Construction of Legal Pluralism

Abstract

This article focuses on historical conditions and sociological variables that contribute to or impede the development of religious freedom. One major set of variables focuses on characteristics of legal and judicial systems. Another set evaluates the characteristics and history of a society, including a society’s cultural values, and how those values are implemented in the regulation of religion. A further set of considerations flows directly from the work of Donald Black in the sociology of law, and includes important variables such as status, intimacy, and third-party partisanship, as well as evidentiary processes and production. Finally, the work of William Chambliss has identified the dialectic processes of law development as useful in allowing us to understand how legal structures protective of religious freedom might be produced.