The Limits of Private Governance: Norms and Rules in a Mediterranean Fishery

Description

Is there a future for the law? In this book, Florian Grisel addresses one of the most fascinating questions raised by social scientists in the past few decades. Since the 1980s, socio-legal scholars have argued that governance based on social norms (or ‘private governance’) can offer an alternative to regulation by the law. On this account, private governance could be socially efficient and even optimal compared with other modes of governance. The Limits of Private Governance supplements this optimistic analysis of private governance by assessing the long-term evolution of a private order in the fishery of Marseille. In the last eight centuries, the fishers of Marseille have regulated their community without apparent means of legal support from the French state. In the early 15th century, they even created an organisation called the Prud’homie de Pêche in order to regulate their fishery. Based on archival evidence, interviews and ethnographic data, Grisel examines the evolution of the Prud’homie de Pêche and argues that the strong social norms in which it is embedded are not only powerful tools of governance, but also forces of inertia that have constrained its regulatory action. The lessons drawn from this book will appeal to academics, policy-makers and members of the general public who have an interest in the governance of our modern societies. Preface Contents Part I:
Genesis 1. Social Order in the Fishery of Marseille I. Introduction II. The Rise of Private Orders III. The Prud'homie: A System of Private Governance? IV. Norms and Rules in Systems of Private Governance V. Conclusion 2. From Norms to Rules I. Introduction II. The Fishers of Marseille and their Social Norms III. The Birth of the Prud'homie and its Rule-Making Functions IV. Accommodating New Practices: The Case of the Floating Nets V. Conclusion Part II:
Resistance 3. Along Came Globalisation I. Introduction II. The Madragues in the Fishery of Marseille III. Labour Migrations and the Arrival of the Catalans IV. Conclusion 4. A Battle of Norms I. Introduction II. Engines and Dragnets III. Dynamite Fishing IV. Electric Light as Bait V. Conclusion Postscript: Provençal Poem by Pierre Molinari (1875), The Massacre of the Sea Perpetrated by the Tradespeople or the Destruction of Fish Part III
: Collapse 5. Law and (Private) Order I. Introduction II. The Creeping Codification of the Prud'homie III. The State Strikes Back IV. Fill or Kill: The EU's Regulatory Agenda V. Conclusion 6. Between Facts and Beliefs I. Introduction II. The Precarious Survival of the Prud'homie III. The Limits of Private Governance IV. Conclusion Bibliography Index