Lessons on Global Legal Transfers from Afghan Taxi Drivers: A Social Network Approach

Abstract

This paper takes up the challenge presented by Gillespie and Nicholson of studying legal transfers through an interpretive approach. The notion of social networks is introduced as a framework for analysing legal transfers in local contexts. Since legal transfers target to reconfigure behaviour, the notion of networks can help to reveal the manner in which new stimuli may change the relationships between actors. This study involves on an empirical study of Afghan taxi drivers to show the impact of legal transfers on a seemingly innocuous group in society. The study of taxi drivers reveals that legal transfers have had an impact on their behaviour but in an unexpected way. Taxi drivers strongly rely on guarantors within their social network for their contractual transactions. The expanded government bureaucracy has helped to create a new set of guarantors, namely ‘governmentguarantors’, whose authority is traced to the state but whose role can be absorbed into the existing network of social relationships between individuals.