Fernanda Pirie

Professor of the Anthropology of Law, University of Oxford

Regional Focus: Tibet
Date of Comments: Session 1, January 14, 2021

Biography:

An anthropologist specialising in Tibetan societies, Fernanda uses ethnographic and historical methods to study and compare legal practices and texts. She has argued for a new anthropology of law, which engages both with legal theory and legal history, in The Anthropology of Law (OUP, 2013). Her most recent research project, which was funded by the UK’s AHRC, examined legal texts and ideas in medieval Tibet: Legal Ideology in Tibet: Politics, Practice, and Religion (2016–18) This has led to a series of publications and a web-site containing source material (www.tibetanlaw.org). She continues to publish on legal anthropology and Tibetan legal history, as well as related issues, such as comparison in law and anthropology.