Sharafi on Galanter's Justice in Many Rooms

Justice in Many Rooms Since Galanter: De-Romanticizing Legal Pluralism Through the Cultural Defense has recently been posted by Mitra J Sharafi, University of Wisconsin Law School. It appeared in Law and Contemporary Problems (Spring 2008). Here's the abstract:

Marc Galanter's article, 'Justice in Many Rooms' (1981) was prescient in recognizing that nonstate law was not necessarily kinder and gentler than state law. While many writing in the 1970s and 80s celebrated nonstate law as more egalitarian and less coercive than state law, Galanter held back. Post-1980s critiques of the cultural defense, particularly by Asian American feminist lawyers, have also contributed to a shift in the scholarly perception of nonstate law. In the spirit of Galanter's piece, the cultural defense debate should be read not just as a discussion about multicultural tolerance, but also as an integral part of the legal pluralism literature.