Contrary to popular stereotypes, Buddhist monks do not live in separate, cloistered worlds sealed off from domestic and international lawmaking, courts and politics. Buddhist monks (like most people) live in a complex situation of legal pluralism. They act as agents and subjects in multiple regulatory regimes: from monastic tribunals, to constitutional law, to transnational legal bodies. This article, which introduces a special issue of Buddhism, Law & Society, identifies several foci of inquiry that may orient current and future scholarship on the legal pluralism of Buddhist monastic life in contemporary Southern Asia. These include: the preva-lence of "hybrid" laws that merge together monastic and state authority; the participation of monks in lawmaking and adjudication; the significance of monasticism as a legal status; the reproduction of legal authority through ordination and lineage; the multiplicity of monastic disciplinary 'texts' beyond the Vinaya Pitaka; and the transformations (and endur-ances) of legal pluralism over time.
目次
Abstract vii Looking Again at Monastic Law in Contemporary Southern Asia x 1. State Law as Monastic Law, and Vice-Versa xiii 2. Monastics as Legal Actors xvi 3. Monks and Nuns as Legal Persons xviii 4. Authority and Authorities in Monastic Governance xxi 5. The Vinaya and Beyond xxiv 6. Legal Pluralism among Buddhist Monks: Then and Now xxvii Conclusion xxx References xxxi
