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Critical legal pluralism acknowledges both the multiple sources and forms of law, and their dynamic interaction, within singular geographical spaces at whatever scales they are defined. Challenging conventional constructs of law and jurisdiction, the articles in this themed section draw on the ideas of legal pluralism, justice and spatial conflict to explore the experience, interaction, impact and possibilities of the plurality of laws in particular and diverse geographical contexts. Encompassing a wide‐ranging geographical scope and pluralistic approach to the idea of law, these articles present fresh analyses and novel case studies from Australia, UK, Cambodia, Indonesia, USA, Thailand and Aotearoa New Zealand, which collectively reflect the richly textured and diversely oriented work of legal geographers. They raise important and challenging questions about law as a living materiality and about place as a legal agent.

This article examines the effects of an uncertain legal status on the lives of immigrants, situating their experiences within frameworks of citizenship/belonging and segmented assimilation, and using Victor Turner's concept of liminality and Susan Coutin's `legal non-existence.' It questions black-and-white conceptualizations of documented and undocumented immigration by exposing the gray area of `liminal legality' and examines how this in-between status affects the individual's social networks and family, the place of the church in immigrants' lives, and the broader domain of artistic expression. Empirically, it draws on ethnographic fieldwork conducted among Salvadoran and Guatemalan immigrants in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Phoenix from 1989 to 2001. The article lends support to arguments about the continued centrality of the nation-state in the lives of immigrants. Reprinted by permission of the University of Chicago Press. © All rights reserved

What informs ordinary citizens' attitudes toward the use of force? Previous research identifies several key concerns in public opinion toward war, but does not directly evaluate the relative importance of these considerations. We articulate three distinct logics of war support—moral, legal, and instrumental—and use an experimental survey with 3,000 U.S. respondents to test how ordinary citizens make trade-offs among multiple competing imperatives relevant for decision making in war. Our design is the first to isolate to what extent substantive legal demands, instrumental military imperatives, and specific moral principles are reflected in respondents' preferences. Although all logics have some resonance, we find that respondents' preferences are remarkably consistent with several core demands of international law even though respondents are not told that the legality of the use of force is at stake. Only the imperative to minimize U.S. military casualties overwhelms both legal and moral demands.

This article examines the use of the law and legal mechanisms to secure authoritarian power and argues that an authoritarian regime with legitimacy problems relies on these tools for its survival. The study explores Thai politics after the military coup of 2014 as a case study, using content analysis on the Thai constitution and related laws. The findings show that the use of the law is a response to the monarchy’s legitimacy problem: the monarchy uses the military as its agency and the law as a tool. This article concludes that the military government has successfully controlled Thai politics by establishing the National Strategy under the auspices of the 2017 constitution, which was promulgated under the military government for the monarchy’s survival. The 2017 constitution and the political developments under the mechanisms set up in the constitution also resulted in a new form of monarchy-military-political party partnership in Thai politics.

Automated decision-making plays a central role in shaping future public services. This paper examines judicial practices at the Administrative Tribunal of Szeged, highlighting challenges in cases involving automated decisions, including limited transparency and barriers to legal recourse. In Hungary, automated systems often function as ‘black boxes’, complicating the appeal process for affected individuals and limiting judicial oversight. This lack of transparency raises significant concerns about the fairness and legality of such decisions, pointing to the need for a robust regulatory framework.

What are the origins and effects of legal ambiguity in authoritarian regimes? Using a detailed case study of nationality rights in Jordan – which draws from interviews with 210 Jordanian political officials, judges, lawyers, activists, and citizens/residents – we develop a framework for understanding how legal ambiguity emerges, and how it matters, under authoritarianism. We first conceptualize four discrete forms in which legal ambiguity manifests: lexical ambiguity (in legal texts); substantive ambiguity (in status as law); conflictual ambiguity (between contradictory legal rules); and operational ambiguity (in enforcement processes). We then scrutinize the emergence and effects of legal ambiguity in Jordanian nationality policy by integrating historical process tracing, detailed interview evidence, and a content analysis of archival documents, laws, and court verdicts pertaining to nationality rights. Our findings contribute to scholarship on legal ambiguity, authoritarian legality, and discretionary state authority by showing that (1) crisis junctures make the emergence of legal ambiguity more likely; (2) legal ambiguity takes a variety of different forms that warrant conceptual disaggregation; and (3) different forms of legal ambiguity often have disparate effects on how authoritarian state power is organized and experienced in public life.

Renisa Mawani, “Insects, War, Plastic Life,” in Plastic Materialities: Politics, Legality, and Metamorphosis in the Work of Catherine Malabou, ed. Brenna Bhandar and Jonathan Goldberg-Hiller, 159–87. Copyright 2015, Duke University Press. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of the copyright holder and the publisher. www.dukeupress.edu

Understanding how money influences the legislative process is essential for assessing American democracy, but problems of endogeneity, legality, and observational equivalence make it difficult to isolate the effect of contributions on policy. We seek to answer long-standing questions about the influence ofmoney in Congress by exploiting a congressional procedure (committee exile) that exogenously varies a member’s influence over the policy-making process. We leverage exile as an identification strategy to show that business interests seek short-termaccess to influential legislators. Industries overseen by the committee decrease contributions to exiled legislators and instead direct their contributions to new committee members from the opposite party. Partisan interests, in contrast, attempt to influence electoral outcomes—boosting contributions to exiled members. Together, we provide evidence that corporations and business PACs use donations to acquire immediate access and favor—suggesting they at least anticipate that the donations will influence policy.

On June 22, 2021, Connecticut became the newest state to legalize recreational cannabis, raising the total number of US states allowing recreational cannabis to 18. One of the promissory notes of state-led legalization is that it will bring cannabis out of an illicit market and into a more transparent one with better safety standards. Meeting this challenge will require properly defining a group of compounds that fall into the category of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) but can have different structures and origins. Here I discuss loopholes that allow for legal hemp production to yield a THC compound that has escaped state and federal regulation because of its hemp, rather than cannabis, origins. I make the case that the loopholes that allow THC compounds to be sold as hemp ought to be closed and provide a brief case study of one state that has done an exceptional job in closing such loopholes.

PurposeThis paper aims to analyze the role of intellectual capital in the underexplored relationship between sustainable performance and credit access among private firms in Italy, where over 90% of businesses are small and medium enterprises. While D’Apolito et al. (2024) have investigated sustainability-linked bank financing among Italian listed small and medium-sized enterprises, this study takes a different approach by focusing on private firms and examining the influence of environmental, social and governance criteria on their credit access. The research seeks to deepen the understanding of how sustainable practices impact financial outcomes and access to funding for private enterprises.Design/methodology/approachTo investigate the relationship between sustainable performance and credit access as well as the moderating role of intellectual capital, this study employs an ordinary least squares regression model. It utilizes an innovative measure of sustainable performance for private firms – the legality rating issued by the Italian Competition Authority in 2022 – drawing on prior research to establish a robust analytical framework.FindingsThe findings highlight the importance of incorporating environmental, social and governance criteria into the credit evaluation process for private firms. They underscore the critical role of intellectual capital – comprising human capital, structural capital and relational capital – as a moderating factor in the relationship between sustainable performance and credit access.Originality/valueTo the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to examine the moderating role of intellectual capital in the relationship between sustainable performance and credit access among Italian private firms. While substantial research exists on environmental, social and governance performance in large listed firms, there remains a notable gap concerning the sustainability criteria of private and unlisted entities. This study addresses this gap by providing insights into the unique dynamics of sustainable performance and financial access in the context of private enterprises.