Doctoral Dissertation Research in Law and Social Science

所有社会都可以被看作是能够产生规则、习俗、符号和遵从性的规范性秩序的多元性。被称为“法律多元主义”的对多种规范秩序的运作和相互关系的研究，为法律与社会关系的重新概念化提供了重要的推动力。法律不是被视为一种“自上而下”的现象，而是历史、文化、社会、政治和经济力量相互作用的结果。最近的社会法律研究工作集中在这种关系及其影响法律变革的方式上。通过对新西兰法律秩序相互作用的分析，作为研究法律多元化的工具，本论文研究将考察殖民和后殖民环境中对权利和资源进行斗争的历史和当代强加、适应和抵抗的模式。具体来说，学生将学习毛利人对新西兰政府违反1840年条约的土地索赔。通过档案研究、统计和人口资料、土地所有制模式分析和社区一级的口述历史，将有可能确定法律是如何构成利益的代表的；反映或促进政治和经济变化的种族主张、多元法律体系、“传统”政治化是当代世界常见的主题。解决这些问题的法律策略相当重要。该项目有可能有助于对影响这种情况的因素进行更广泛的理论理解。在世界许多地方，原居民的后代在后来被其他人口占有的地区提出土地要求的时期，这项工作也具有实际应用价值。

All societies can be viewed as a plurality of normative orders capable of generating rules, customs, symbols, and compliance. Termed "legal pluralism," the study of the operation and interrelation of multiple normative orders has provided a major impetus for the reconceptualization of the law and society relation. Instead of being viewed as a "top-down" phenomena, law effectively is the result of the interaction of historical, cultural, social, political, and economic forces. Recent work in sociolegal studies has focused on this relationship and the ways in which it has affected legal change. Using an analysis of the interaction of legal orders in New Zealand as a vehicle for the study of legal pluralism, this dissertation research will examine historical and contemporary patterns of impositions, accommodations, and resistances that have marked struggles over rights and resources in colonial and post-colonial settings. Specifically, the student will study a Maori land claim against the New Zealand government for violations of an 1840 Treaty. Through archival research, statistical and demographic information, analysis of land tenure patterns, and community level oral histories, it will be possible to ascertain how law has structured the representation of interests, reflecting or facilitating political and economic change. Ethnic claims, plural legal systems, and politicization of "tradition" are familiar themes in the contemporary world. Legal strategies for addressing them are of considerable importance. This project has potential for contributing to a broader theoretical understanding of the factors that impinge on such situations. In a period in which land claims are being made in many parts of the world by the descendants of the original inhabitants of areas subsequently appropriated by other populations, this work has practical applications as well.