Internationally renowned as a tourist destination, the Indonesian Island of Bali displays a rich and colorful culture which has served as one of the many explanation for its global reach. Its primarily Hindu population is visibly seen through a rather invisible disposition that perpetuates itself through the Balinese customary legal system which influences daily life. This autochthonous legal system exists in plurality with the Indonesian state legal system. As with all legal systems, the Balinese customary law system is in a state of flux. This article will examine the foundational sources and purposes of authority in the Balinese customary law system and analyze the pressures of change upon that system. It will be argued that an embryonic quasi-common law system is developing within the opus of Balinese customary law system due to the recent formation of the Majelis Utama Desa Pakraman (Pakraman Primary Village Council) and the Bali Mawacara jurisprudence.

The starting point in understanding Australia’s socio-legal place in an international context is to be familiar with its Western legal tradition. Some of the characteristics of the Western idea of law include the separation of law from other normative systems (such as religion), the centrality or primacy of law as a method of regulating society, and the inherent authority of law. Other major socio-legal features of contemporary Australia include a multicultural population and government by representative democracy. Australian law has sprung out of the English branch of the Western legal tradition, therefore the English heritage of Australian law will first be considered.

The starting point in understanding Australia’s socio-legal place in an international context is to be familiar with its Western legal tradition. Some of the characteristics of the Western idea of law include the separation of law from other normative systems (such as religion), the centrality or primacy of law as a method of regulating society, and the inherent authority of law. Other major socio-legal features of contemporary Australia include a multicultural population and government by representative democracy. Australian law has sprung out of the English branch of the Western legal tradition, therefore the English heritage of Australian law will first be considered.

The notion of a sovereign polity holding a monopoly over law that is followed within its jurisdictional borders is threatened by the phenomena of transnational law and normative pluralism. Authoritative norms can be highly influential upon legal processes within the borders of a polity. Those norms may be derived from other legal systems, religious or belief systems or a combination of both. In this era of globalization, normative pluralism exists as an everyday fact of life almost everywhere in the modern world. This article considers the normative pluralism that has been experienced in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia and the need to further develop the pluralism model of semi-autonomous social fields.

What is the jurisprudential approach taken to Natural Resources Law in Australia? The ultimate source of law in Australia is Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act however the Constitution does not specifically include an environment or natural resources power and the Commonwealth government can only make laws under the heads of power provided by the Constitution. This paper considers how natural resources law has developed as environmental protection law, especially the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Also discussed is the approach taken by the Northern Territory of Australia in relation to natural resources law. The discussion unearths the developing jurisprudence in Australian natural resources law that seems to increasingly favour environmental protection over human development.