Preface
Legal anthropology is a discipline that uses the theory and method of anthropology to explain and study the legal issues. It is in the intersection of law and anthropology and is a branch of cross discipline. As a frontier discipline emerging and developing during the mid 19th century or later, legal anthropology is the expansion and mutual penetration between traditional law and traditional anthropology, calling for the mutual understanding and respect from different cultures. It carries on dynamic study of law, identifies with multiple cultures and national laws, requiring the common application of national laws and informal rules as settlement mechanism of disputes in order to maintain social orders.
Since the 1990s, Post －modern legal ideological trend has been introduced from the west, which claims there are multiple choices and different conceptual systems or hypothesis systems explaining the world existing in their own systems because there exists no an authoritative and objective choosing way. The ideological trend asserts multiplicity and variety of perspective and advocates a kind of methodological theory of pluralism, allowing the existence of various understanding of law. Under these influences, the number of scholars and academic groups committed to the investigation and research of national customary law as well as folk law grows gradually. It is in the background that legal anthropology in China is gradually spread. Through more than 30 years' development, the research into legal anthropology in China starts from scratch and flourishes. The research fields expand from initial minorities' customary law to folk law, rural social governance and so on. Its Research Paradigm gradually changes from the Paradigm of research on rule and system as its centers to the Paradigm of research on dispute and process as its centers, from valuing the status and development of legal system under specific condition to valuing more legal phenomena and legal problems in real society. In brief, in recent 30 years, legal anthropology in China has made sparking progress in many aspects. Of course, it is obvious that there exists deficiency and problem. For example, definite disciplinary system in legal anthropology in China has not formed. There are no enough theoretical contributions and there are less academic findings in legal anthropology, making it have no internationally academic position.
In order to further promote the development of legal anthropology in China, promote communication in studying experience in legal anthropology, gradually flourish study of legal anthropology in China and intensify communication with the outer theoretical world, Under the guidance and support of the Society for Research on Chinese Anthropology and Ethnology, National Ethnic Affairs Committee and Ministry of Civil Affairs, a group of scholars in China who are enthusiastic about the study of legal anthropology established Professional Committee of Legal Anthropology affiliated to the Society for Research on Chinese Anthropology and Ethnology in 2011 and decided that from that year on it would annually held an advanced forum on Legal Anthropology. By the end of 2016, it has successively held six－phase forums. In order to better promote the study of legal anthropology, Professional Committee of Legal Anthropology decided to publish“Legal Anthropology Review”（yearly）as an academic platform of domestic research and communication of legal anthropology. The first volume, the second volume the third volume and the fourth volume of“Legal Anthropology Review”have been respectively published by Minzu University of China Press in 2013, Law Press in 2014, Social Science Literature Press in 2015 and Social Science Literature Press in 2016.
We established“Legal Anthropology Review”（Journal）with the hope of promoting the following tasks：
The first is to urge Chinese academic world to research into overseas legal anthropological theories and translate some of their excellent academic works into Chinese works.
The second is to innovate Chinese legal anthropological creativity of theory and method Presently, at some extent the study in domestic legal anthropology is still to test western theory by Chinese documentary. Aiming at this, we need to retrospect and think into the deep, responding to times' needs and creating more reasonable and scientific theories and methods suitable for Chinese social reality.
The third is to promote the study of Legal National histories. In China, there are so abundant and unique national resources for the development of Legal Anthropology, but there are less highly influential great researching works like legal national histories. However, there is a lack of legal ethnography of high quality comparable to these works like“the Andaman Islanders”by Alfred·Radcliffe· Brown, “Noor”by Evans·Pritchard and so on. Especially in the context of legal modernization, we are also faced with the problem of conflict and adjustment between the modern legal cultures and the traditional legal cultures of our country, under the background the study of legal ethnography can better help us to understand ourselves.
The fourth is to promote the research of legal anthropology to pay more attention to legal phenomenon and legal issues in the real society, to study how to adapt to the process of legal modernization and globalization and to explore the governance of rural society and ethnic areas under the background of“living law”, thus promoting legal rule and social construction in our country.
The fifth is to make the research contents in Legal Anthropology more plentiful from the national regions and rural society to the Han nationality region and urban society, It applies basic anthropological methods to study all informal rules and even operation practice of national laws to seeking for the real“living laws”in the process of social governance.
It is hoped that“Legal Anthropology Review”can make out more valuable thinking and exploration under the studious supports of academic colleagues.
Above is the preface！
December 30th, 2016