Abstract

Arguments about normative unity and multiplicity dominate a great deal of scholarship on legal pluralism. Yet such arguments are not only advanced by academics, nor are they value-free descriptions of law. Notions of legal unity and multiplicity may also be deployed strategically by the legal actors that scholars study in order to advance their own interests, or criticize others. This article considers this fact, along with its methodological consequences, by highlighting conceits of unity and multiplicity as they operate within Buddhist monastic law in Sri Lanka. Drawing on Buddhist legal texts in Sri Lanka’s main vernacular language of Sinhala as well as the Theravāda Buddhist liturgical language of Pāli, this article illuminates competing theories of legal monism and pluralism operating within traditions of Theravāda Buddhist monastic law. In so doing, it explores the complex politics—of averring or critiquing the self-presentation of legal authorities—that necessarily accompanies the study of religious law and other forms of non-state law.

摘要

关于规范统一性和多重性的论点主导着大量关于法律多元化的学术研究。然而，这样的论点不仅是学术界提出的，也不是对法律的无价值描述。学者们研究的法律行为者也可以战略性地部署法律统一性和多重性的概念，以促进自己的利益或批评他人。本文通过强调在斯里兰卡佛教寺院法中运作的统一性和多样性的自负，考虑了这一事实及其方法论后果。本文借鉴斯里兰卡主要方言僧伽罗语和上座部佛教礼仪语言巴利语的佛教法律文本，阐明在其内部运作的法律一元论和多元论的竞争理论上座部佛教寺院法的传统。在这样做的过程中，它探索了复杂的政治——断言或批评法律权威的自我表现——这必然伴随着对宗教法和其他形式的非国家法律的研究。