Paper's abstract

Dominique Terré, Pluralism and Law
This paper focuses on pluralism, which is connected with empiricism, prag-matism, realism, democracy, social forces. France of the Middle Age and the Roman Empire have experimented some kind of pluralism. Pluralism con-trasts with the monism of the State involved in the theories of Carré de Malberg and Kelsen. Pluralism can be found in history more often than could be thought. Monism underrates the complexity of social life. Pluralism upholds that the law stems from the most vivid social forces, as George Gurvitch thinks who carved the formula of the “normative fact”. However, pluralism is difficult to apprehend. Is a pluralism other than a mere façade possible ? Is there not always a reference to the State behind the most intense and unbridled legal forms? Pluralism today is rather to be found in pheno-mena such as alternative modes of conflict regulation or independent authori-ties.

Key Words : State monism, social forces, conflict, normative fact
t. 49 : 2005, p. 69-83

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