ABSTRACT
In communities without specialized legal institutions, law and valid custom amount to pretty much the same thing. One meaning of the word ‘law’ in English that points to this stage in social history is ‘binding custom or practice of a community.’ Pressure toward the development of distinct legal institutions, however, builds wherever conflict arises over what exactly are the established customs and how they are to be followed in particular circumstances. Where there is uncertainty and where the understanding of different groups or different private individuals differs, then there is need for an authoritative determination of what established custom requires, and the addition of ‘an authoritative determination’ generates a concept closer to more familiar senses of our word ‘law.’ This concept of ‘law’ normally includes, and sometimes extends more widely than, the sphere where coercion to enforce compliance is regarded as valid or legitimate (see Section 2.4).
