민족지적 세계와 법의 (재)구성 : 인류학적 방법론의 검토

Legal anthropology employs ethnographic research methods to investigate and analyze “law in practice”. Law described in different ethnographic cases emerges to be diverse and variable in terms of form, function, and practice, with the relationships and interactions between different legal orders as the primary context. The anthropologist's ethnographic accounts contribute to revealing and analyzing local understandings and practices of law, as well as the informal and formal social systems and institutions that constitute the conditions for such practices. This article examines the issues of customary law and legal pluralism, which have been at the center of anthropological legal study, from the perspective of law as ethnographic construction, and introduces an anthropological understanding of illegality that calls for fundamental changes to currently accepted laws and legal systems. As for the phenomenon of legal pluralism in relation to customary law, two ethnographic examples are used to illustrate how the relationship between state law and customary law varies according to the local context. An ethnographic case related to the study of illegality sheds light on the illegal practices of migrants in conflict with state law. Through these examples of customary law, legal pluralism, and illegality, this article considers the contributions that ethnographic works can make to the study of law and facilitate more inclusive and flexible ways of thinking of law.