Interpretations and Applications in India (Interpreting Aspects of Santi Romano’s Institutional and Pluralistic Theory of Law in India Part II)

Published date01 June 2022
DOI10.1177/00195561221090403
Date01 June 2022
Subject MatterReview Essay
Interpretations and
Applications in India
(Interpreting Aspects of
Santi Romano’s
Institutional and
Pluralistic Theory of
Law in India Part II)*
Introduction
The system of norms and sanctions have to function and persist in any state, so
also in India, to keep the ‘legal order’ running otherwise it would be a precipi-
tous decline into chaos and anarchy, leading to the dissolution of the state as the
highest institution itself and the idea of ‘pluralism’ which it institutionally (and
even normatively—only to prescribe its functions and not as part of its deni-
tion) is intended to serve.
Some possible structural applications on India are as follows:
1. This is exactly why the institutions of the State (‘Lo Stato’ with capital
‘S’ in Italian; also emphasised as such by Nicolo Machiavelli and, at least
a millennia and a half before him, by Kautilya) must remain and func-
tion to their full capacity rather than splinter into groups (religion, caste,
class, etc.) to obstruct the pluralism which it is intended to serve.
2. Therefore, the system in Romano’s sense (an all-encompassing system
from which even sanction derives its authority as a non-norm part of
the legal order) has to persist and self-sustain itself in India to keep the
‘legal order’ running, otherwise it would be a precipitous decline into
chaos and anarchy leading to the dissolution of ‘India’ itself and the idea
of ‘pluralism’ which it, institutionally and also normatively, is intended
to serve.
Review Essay
Indian Journal of Public
Administration
68(2) 320–332, 2022
© 2022 IIPA
Reprints and permissions:
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DOI: 10.1177/00195561221090403
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* This is the second part of a two-part article. Part I titled ‘Interpreting Aspects of Santi Romano’s
Institutional and Pluralistic Theory of Law in India’ got published in IJPA/SAGE, 68.1 issue of
the journal. The author f‌irst presented a draft paper titled ‘Reading Santi Romano’s The Legal
Order in India’ on 26 September 2019 (Panel 46) at the 4th Annual Conference of the Law and
Development Research Network with the theme of ‘The Plurality of Law and Development' at
Humboldt University, Berlin.

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