"Legal Pluralism, Rule of Law, Cultural Interpretation" Some Aspects of the Concept of "Hermeneutics of Legal Pluralism" with special regard to the ideas of Clifford Geertz and Paul Ricouer

The present article examines the relationship between legal hermeneutics, legal pluralism and the rule of law. In other words, the role of "legal hermeneutics" as the link between "maintaining the unity and cohesion of the legal system" on the one hand and "implementing the main functions of the rule of law" on the other hand, will be elucidated and analyzed. To this end, the authors will examine the notion of "hermeneutics of legal pluralism", which has been raised by the eminent anthropologist Clifford Geertz, and criticize and expound it in the light of Paul Ricoeur’s thoughts and theories. Having a special regard to these ideas, it can finally be concluded that legal pluralism and legal diversity are not only an obstacle to the realization of "rule of law", but to the contrary, the uncontested qualities of law – as a sense-seeking constructive phenomenon – require and demand, rather than violate, the mechanisms of "rule of law" as normative principles for reconstructing the existing law.