[2021] Debating Multinormativity and Legal Pluralism

In Latin America and elsewhere, the concept of legal pluralism has occupied a central position in different research and in various fields such as sociology, anthropology and legal history. This concept has been productive in reflecting on the formation of law outside the framework of legal and formal normativity. However, legal pluralism, as a concept, has been challenged on several fronts. The conception of valid legal norms in the same field raises the question of what is the criterion for identifying law and related aporias. More recently, the alternative concept of multinormativity has been proposed in the hope of building on some earlier impulses and taking the debate forward. In a first approximation, multinormativity refers to normative expectations, legal or not, explicit or presupposed in practices. It is a category under development that requires greater precision and whose productivity must be tested.