Simon Roberts. “After Government? On Representing Law Without the State.” The Modern Law Review, vol. 68, no. 1 (2005): 1–24.
This article critically examines the longstanding association between law and the state in Western legal scholarship, which dominated much of the 20th century. It traces how, over the past thirty years, the rise of legal pluralism has challenged this view by recognizing law in non-state contexts, such as acephalous societies and global governance structures. However, the author argues that these conceptual expansions are problematic, given the strong historical and cultural links between law and projects of government. Roberts cautions against equating negotiated social orders—whether local or global—with formal legal orders typical of the state, emphasizing the distinctive rationalities and values inherent in each. The article concludes with a call for greater caution in representing non-state orderings as law, noting that traditional markers of legal authority, such as legislators and judges, remain largely tied to the state framework.