Grassroots Law in Papua New Guinea.

• Superior document: Monographs in Anthropology Series
• Author: Demian, Melissa.
• TeilnehmendeR: Demian, Melissa,; Australian National University Press,
• Place / Publishing House: Canberra : : ANU Press,, 2023.; ©2023.
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Monographs in Anthropology Series
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (210 pages)

The introduction of village courts in Papua New Guinea in 1975 was an ambitious experiment in providing semi-formal legal access to the country's overwhelmingly rural population. Nearly 50 years later, the enthusiastic adoption of these courts has had a number of ramifications, some of them unanticipated. Arguably, the village courts have developed and are working exactly as they were supposed to do, adapted by local communities to modes and styles consistent with their own dispute management sensibilities. But with little in the way of state oversight or support, most village courts have become, of necessity, nearly autonomous. Village courts have also become the blueprint for other modes of dispute management. They overlap with other sources of authority, so the line between what does and does not constitute a 'court' is now indistinct in many parts of the country. Rather than casting this issue as a problem for legal development, the contributors to Grassroots Law in Papua New Guinea ask how, under conditions of state withdrawal, people seek to retain an understanding of law that holds out some promise of either keeping the attention of the state or reproducing the state's authority -- Source other than Library of Congress.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The magic of the court / Melissa Demian. Part I. Village courts and non-courts in action. 1. Legal consciousness and the predicament of village courts in a 'weak state': Internalisation of external authority in the New Guinea Highlands / Hiroki Fukagawa ; 2. Following an adultery case beyond the court: The making of legal consciousness in and around Nadzab Village Court, Markham River Valley / Juliane Neuhaus ; 3. 'Making kastam full' in the Sepik: The Awim village court as a spectral gift of shells / Tomi Bartole ; 4. Unmaking a village court: The invisible workings of an alternative dispute forum / Eve Houghton -- Part II: The courts, the law and the Papua New Guinean state. 5. Keeping the sky up: Papua New Guinea's village courts in the age of capacity building / Michael Goddard ; 6. Collapsing the scales of law / Melissa Demian ; 7. A system that allows people to say sorry: An interview with Fiona Hukula / Transcribed and edited by Camila F Marinelli and Melissa Demian.