ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the three cardinal directions: the fetishism of the law; ID-ology; and anthropological criminology. Protagonists of the sovereignty of tradition have invoked the 'justifiable' and 'democratic' limitation in their struggles with the state. It was written originally as a Keynote Lecture to a conference on 'Law and Governance' at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, in November 2006. The global effect is not unusual any more to hear the Euro-language of jurisprudence in the Amazon or Aboriginal Australia. 'Lawmaking', said Benjamin, is 'power making'. South Africa, being a post colony, was erected from the first on difference. Like most other places, it has seen a significant shift in the dialectic of law and governance. Here as elsewhere, neoliberalism has emerged triumphant, its language spoken as a national vernacular, albeit not without challenge.
