Book Note: Public Justice and the Anthropology of Law

Abstract

Book note of Justice and the Anthropology of Law by Ronald Niezen. In Public Justice and the Anthropology of Law, Niezen unpacks the complicated and at times elusive relationship between a nebulous entity known as the ‘public’ and marginalized groups seeking recognition of their collective culture rights. The central theme of the book surrounds the “new forms of legal sociability, expressed above all through identities that coalesce around legal claims and processes”. Publics, Niezen argues, play a key role in shaping the identity and strategic behavior of cultural rights claimants. By appealing to publics, these claimants can push publics to lobby for their cause. Public mobilization in turn helps to ensure the enforcement of international legal norms by exerting pressuring on the violating party, whether a state or otherwise. Compliance is ultimately effected through “moral suasion and reputational cost”, thereby ensuring the protection of the impugned cultural right.