Personal Autonomy in Plural Societies

A Principle and its Paradoxes

Marie-Claire Foblets, Michele Graziadei, Alison Renteln

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English

Routledge
20 November 2017

Anthropology; Jurisprudence & general issues

Series: Law and Anthropology

This volume addresses the exercise of personal autonomy in contemporary situations of normative pluralism. In the Western liberal tradition, from a strictly legal and theoretical perspective the social individual has the right to exercise the autonomy of his or her will. In a context of legal plurality, however, personal autonomy becomes more complicated. Can and should personal autonomy be recognized as a legal foundation for protecting a person’s freedom to renounce what others view as his or her fundamental ‘human rights’? This collection develops an interdisciplinary conceptual framework to address these questions and presents empirical studies examining the gap between the principle of personal autonomy and its implementation. In a context of cultural diversity, this gap manifests itself in two particular ways. First, not every culture gives the same pre-eminence to personal autonomy when examining the legal effects of an individual’s acts. Second, in a society characterized by ‘weak pluralism’, the legal assessment of personal autonomy often favours the views of the dominant majority. In highlighting these diverse perspectives and problematizing the so-called ‘guardian function’ of human rights, i.e., purporting to protect weaker parties by limiting their personal autonomy in the name of gender equality, fair trial, etc., this book offers a nuanced approach to the principle of autonomy and addresses the questions of whether it can effectively be deployed in situations of internormativity and what conditions must be met in order to ensure that it is not rendered devoid of all meaning. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Edited by: Marie-Claire Foblets, Michele Graziadei, Alison Renteln
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 246mm, Width: 174mm,
Weight: 680g
ISBN: 9781138220218
ISBN 10: 1138220213
Series: Law and Anthropology
Pages: 302
Publication Date: 20 November 2017
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Marie-Claire Foblets is Professor of Law at the University of Leuven, Belgium and since 2012 also Director of the Department of Law & Anthropology at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany. She has held various visiting professorships both within and outside Europe. She has conducted extensive research and published widely on issues of migration law, citizenship/nationality laws, compulsory integration, anti-racism and non-discrimination, etc. In the field of anthropology of law, her research focuses on cultural diversity and legal practice, with a particular interest in the application of Islamic family law in Europe, and more recently in the accommodation of cultural and religious diversity under state law. Alison Dundes Renteln is Professor of Political Science, Anthropology, Law, and Public Policy at the University of Southern California, where she teaches International Law and Human Rights. She has taught judges, lawyers, court interpreters, jury consultants, and police officers at meetings of the American Bar Association, National Association of Women Judges, North American South Asian Bar Association, American Society of Trial Consultants, and others. She has collaborated with the UN on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, lectured on comparative legal ethics in Bangkok and Manila at ABA-sponsored conferences, and served on several California civil rights commissions and the California committee of Human Rights Watch. She has published extensively on her areas of research. Michele Graziadei is Professor of Comparative Law at the University of Turin, Italy. His research concentrates on the methodology of comparative law, legal pluralism, law and language, and on other theoretical problems relating to the comparison of laws. He has published widely in several languages, and has directed or taken part in international research projects concerning law and other social sciences. He is a member of the International Academy of Comparative Law, President of the Italian Society for Research on Comparative Law (SIRD), President of the Italian Group of the Association Capitant, and fellow of the European Centre on Tort and Insurance Law, Vienna. He has been a visiting professor at Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas, Cornell University, Université de Luxembourg, and Bar-Ilan University, and is visiting Professor at the Université Jean Moulin, Lyon III. He teaches at the Faculté internationale de droit comparé, Strasbourg.

Reviews for Personal Autonomy in Plural Societies: A Principle and its Paradoxes

'This rich Volume not only invites – but forces – the reader to critically reflect on the meaning of liberalism, in a liberal democracy, in relation to the notions of personal autonomy and human rights. Whatever has been taken for granted turns out to be much more complicated when contrasted with the needs in a pluralistic society. The Volume is a warmly recommended reading for anyone concerned about the limits of cultural diversity.' Maarit Jänterä-Jareborg, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult., Professor of Private International Law and International Civil Procedure, Uppsala University, Sweden 'In principle, personal autonomy should be a useful idea to navigate the troubled waters of contemporary plural societies. But what happens if that rudder is itself culturally conditioned? Is it still personal autonomy to stay the course? These are the main questions that this book seeks to answer.' Carlos Gómez Martínez, Judge in the Court of Appeal of the Balearic Islands