Legal dissonance
Subtitle: the interaction of criminal law and customary law in Papua New Guinea
By: Shaun Larcom
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Published: 2015
Place of publication: New York; Oxford
Language: eng
Number of pages: 178
ISBN-13: 9781782386483; 9781782386490
Copyright date: 2015
Subjects: Sociological jurisprudence; Customary law; Criminal law
Description: "Papua New Guinea's two most powerful legal orders -- customary law and state law -- [each] undermine the other in criminal matters. This phenomenon, called legal dissonance, can help explain the low level of personal security found in many parts of the country. It is shown that a lack of coordination in the punishing of wrong behavior is both problematic for legal orders themselves and for those who are subject to such a legal phenomenon. Legal dissonance can lead to an activity being simultaneously advanced by one legal order and punished by the other, leading to injustice, and, perhaps more importantly, an undermining of each legal order's ability to deter wrongdoing"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 163-174) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: Papua New Guinea, legal pluralism, and law and economics; title: Customary law and the state criminal law; title: Historical overview of the state, criminal law and customary law; title: Empirical study of the sanction of wrongs in the New Guinea islands; title: Legal dissonance in Papua New Guinea; title: Past reforms that failed; title: Conclusion: reforming the prosecution process.