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《亚洲法与社会杂志》悼念马克·格兰特

AsianJLS Mourns the Loss of Marc Galanter

Marc Galanter

1931-2026

【按】著名法社会学家马克·格兰特（Marc Galanter）教授于2026年4月14日与世长辞。纵观格兰特教授的学术人生，他始终致力于打破“欧美中心主义”的学术桎梏，强调来自印度、亚洲及全球南方的经验并非对主流理论的注脚与补充，而是能够从根本上丰富乃至重构我们对法律作为社会制度的理解。这种“以亚洲为方法”的学术追求，与本刊致力于搭建“亚洲与不同区域、文明圈专家、学者之间的学术研究交流平台”的创刊宗旨高度契合。2011年10月30日至11月2日，他曾应《亚洲法与社会杂志》创刊人兼主编季卫东教授之邀，专程访问上海交通大学凯原法学院与法社会学研究中心（中国法与社会研究院的前身），出席“全球化时代的法律职业”主题国际研讨会，并发表题为《律师比人更多：全球法律职业者的倍数增长》（More Lawyers Than People: The Global Multiplication of Legal Professionals）的精彩演讲。

格兰特教授的远去，是世界法社会学界的重大损失，但他留给我们的思想遗产——对法律多元主义的坚守、对弱势群体的深切关怀、以及将亚洲经验纳入全球理论构建的学术勇气——将永远激励着本刊编辑部以及所有有志于推动亚洲法社会学研究的同仁。

我们沉痛悼念马克·格兰特（Marc Galanter）于4月14日与世长辞。作为一位开创性的学者，他的研究为重塑“法律与社会”研究领域做出了重要贡献。在该领域主要受欧美观念主导的时期，格兰特凭借其对印度及南亚地区的长期深入研究，对那些被视为理所当然的法律认知提出了质疑。他的学术研究表明，来自这些背景的洞见并非仅仅是补充性的，而是能够从根本上丰富并深化关于法律作为社会制度的主流理论。

从早期关于种姓制度及废除“不可触碰”制度的研究起步，格兰特构建了一套学术体系，阐明了法律体系在高度分层的社会世界中如何运作。他对平权行动的分析——尤以《竞争性平等：印度法律与落后阶级》（Competing Equalities: Law and the Backward Classes in India）一书为集大成者——虽植根于印度的经验，却也为美国的相关辩论提供了新的视角。通过考察旨在弥补历史性不利处境的政策在印度的实施过程，他揭示了通过法律实现平等的可能性与悖论，并提出了一种重新构架美国对平权行动理解的视角。他将印度视为理论构建的实践场域而非待解释的个案，揭示了从全球南方视角展开审视时，“权利”“平等”和“法律发展”等概念所呈现的新意涵。

格兰特的最具影响力的著作，包括《为什么“强势者”优先》（Why the “Haves” Come Out Ahead）和《多室正义》（Justice in Many Rooms），都烙印着这种比较与跨文化的视角。基于他在印度的亲身经历，他挑战了关于法律中心地位的既定假设，揭示了法律多元主义的普遍性以及正式司法裁决的局限性。通过这些探索，他重塑了法与社会研究的理论基础，促进该领域向亚洲敞开大门，进而使亚洲得以反过来重塑这一领域。在“以法律所嵌入的多元社会世界来理解法律”的持续努力中，他的学术遗产将得以延续。

【Editor’s Note】 Professor Marc Galanter, a renowned scholar in the field of law and society, passed away on April 14, 2026. Throughout his academic career, Professor Galanter was committed to breaking free from the academic shackles of “Euro-American-centrism.” He emphasized that experiences from India, Asia, and the Global South are not merely footnotes or supplements to mainstream theories, but can fundamentally enrich and even reconstruct our understanding of law as a social institution. This academic pursuit of “Asia as a method” aligns closely with the founding mission of our journal, which is dedicated to building “an academic exchange platform among experts and scholars from Asia and various regions and civilizations.” From October 30 to November 2, 2011, at the invitation of Professor Ji Weidong, founder and editor-in-chief of Asian Journal of Law and Society, he made a special visit to the Koguan School of Law and Law and Society Center (the predecessor of the China Institute for Socio-Legal Studies) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University to attend an international symposium on “The Legal Profession in the Age of Globalization” and delivered an inspiring speech titled “More Lawyers Than People: The Global Multiplication of Legal Professionals.”

Galanter’s passing is a significant loss to the global community of legal sociology, but the intellectual legacy he leaves behind—his steadfast commitment to legal pluralism, his deep concern for marginalized groups, and his academic courage in incorporating Asian experiences into global theoretical frameworks—will forever inspire the editorial board of our journal and all colleagues dedicated to advancing the study of law and society in Asia.

We mourn the passing of Marc Galanter on April 14, a pioneering scholar whose work helped reshape the study of Law and Society. At a time when the field was largely shaped by Euro-American assumptions, Galanter drew on his sustained engagement with India and South Asia to question taken-for-granted understandings of law. His scholarship showed that insights from these contexts were not merely supplementary, but could fundamentally enrich and complicate prevailing theories of law as a social institution.

Beginning with his early research on caste and the abolition of untouchability, Galanter developed a body of work that illuminated how legal systems operate within deeply stratified social worlds. His analyses of affirmative action—most notably in Competing Equalities: Law and the Backward Classes in India—were grounded in the Indian experience, yet they also cast new light on debates in the United States. By examining how policies aimed at redressing historical disadvantage unfolded in India, he revealed both the possibilities and the paradoxes of equality through law, offering a perspective that reframed American understandings of affirmative action. Treating India not as a case to be explained but as a site of theory-building, he showed how categories such as rights, equality, and legal development take on new meanings when viewed from the Global South.

Galanter’s most influential writings, including “Why the ‘Haves’ Come Out Ahead” and “Justice in Many Rooms,” bear the imprint of this comparative and cross-cultural perspective. Drawing on his experiences in India, he challenged assumptions about legal centrality, demonstrating the ubiquity of