Based on the paradigm of decoloniality, which is gaining ground but remains largely unexplored in law in Europe, this article attempts to identify its implications for the private international law (PIL) of European states, which notably deals with the question of the law applicable to a transnational dispute and the recognition of a foreign personal or family status. It focuses on disputes between a party from a post-colonial state and a European state authority. The article draws on a decolonial theoretical framework established in previous work, which shows the methodological need to rethink PIL regarding a legal and ethnographic analysis of court cases, to make the field more inclusive of the worldviews, realities and experiences of post-colonial peoples and individuals. Focusing here on the legal aspect of the analysis, it proposes a decolonial study of three emblematic cases, from France, Belgium and Great Britain respectively, concerning nationality, marriages involving minors and international adoption, in order to suggest DIP rules that are more compatible with decolonial thinking. In this regard, the article primarily advocates a decolonial pragmatism that sees these rules as a set of tools at the judge's disposal, compatible with the limits of legal practice.
"Traditional chieftaincies" in Cameroon, embedded in local social and legal systems, are key institutions within a pluralistic legal system. This article examines their role as semi-autonomous social fields, drawing on Sally Falk Moore's concept (1973). It analyzes their constitutional recognition, their spheres of jurisdiction and influence, as well as their interactions with positive law. Although incorporated into the national legal framework, these chieftaincies retain customary authority and provide alternative mechanisms for dispute resolution. This ambiguous status reflects both tensions and complementarities between customary norms and formal judicial system, highlighting their respective contributions to governance across different social spheres. The analysis explores the autonomy of customary chieftaincies as well as the dynamics of adaptation, resistance, and coexistence among normative systems in a postcolonial African state.
Located in the northwest of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the al-'Ula oasis is the focus of an ambitious development project by the Saudi government. This project is the second wave of change after the economic take-off of the 1980s that had a significant impact on the living conditions in this oasis socio-ecosystem. This article proposes to use the normative tool as a key to understanding the ongoing changes, with the support of data collected during an ethnographic survey that involved 18 months of fieldwork from December 2020 to November 2022. Starting from the notion of normativity, I introduce historical and current organizations of legal and social norms in al-'Ula. The aim is to understand norms and the tensions caused by the development, the State's reappropriation of its territory.
Dependent on religious affiliation, Iraqi personal status highlights the originality and particularities of the various religious communities traditionally established in the country. For a very long time, Muslim state law accommodates the existence of various forms of normativity governing certain minority groups. These groups are sovereign in setting the prescriptions of their own religious laws, which are intended to govern the family life of their members. The present contribution proposes to identify the various process used by state actors to acknowledge the existence of extra-state normativities. The author points out a typology of the different modes of interaction provoked by the indirect intervention of the state in the justice field. The consideration of exogenous normativity can take many forms: reception, eviction, coordination, substitution, adaptation, assimilation, subordination, withdrawal, and so on.
Based on the paradigm of decoloniality, which is gaining ground but remains largely unexplored in law in Europe, this article attempts to identify its implications for the private international law (PIL) of European states, which notably deals with the question of the law applicable to a transnational dispute and the recognition of a foreign personal or family status. It focuses on disputes between a party from a post-colonial state and a European state authority. The article draws on a decolonial theoretical framework established in previous work, which shows the methodological need to rethink PIL regarding a legal and ethnographic analysis of court cases, to make the field more inclusive of the worldviews, realities and experiences of post-colonial peoples and individuals. Focusing here on the legal aspect of the analysis, it proposes a decolonial study of three emblematic cases, from France, Belgium and Great Britain respectively, concerning nationality, marriages involving minors and international adoption, in order to suggest DIP rules that are more compatible with decolonial thinking. In this regard, the article primarily advocates a decolonial pragmatism that sees these rules as a set of tools at the judge's disposal, compatible with the limits of legal practice.
