ABSTRACT
This chapter shifts the focus from the plurality of personal law systems to the smaller yet important space of common legal concerns. The public legal order would have a stake in clarity of choice among personal law systems and in their interoperability. Knotty questions arise, touching on everything from how far to take coercive enforcement of claims that arise within each personal law system to scenarios that might require intervening in their internal operation, and to the possible broader impact of discriminatory and other practices. The public legal order must facilitate the workings of personal law systems while also guaranteeing common goods among them. The latter part of the chapter delves more deeply into how devout Muslims and others might understand the legitimacy of a neutral public legal order beyond the dense commitments of their own personal law systems. It also considers the rule of law, accountability of state administration, a common penal code amid global diversity, and the insights that the major legal traditions offer into organs of adjudication.
