Passage of Change: : law, society and governance in the Pacific

Abstract

This book aims to introduce readers to some significant areas of ‘modernisation inspired’ legal changes or challenges that are currently being faced by Pacific island countries. These challenges are largely arising because of tensions between the legal,political and social systems introduced by various colonial powers and the legal,political and social systems of indigenous cultures. It may seem that indigenous cultures are becoming obsolete, a piece of tradition that, increasingly, belongs in the past. From such a viewpoint introduced systems must ultimately prevail in order that Pacific island nations are able to ‘progress’ and to participate in the global economy.Such a picture, though, rests on a static concept of culture which fails to realise that cultures adapt to change and that the meeting of different cultures is a catalyst for change in all of them. Throughout the Pacific these different systems are currently struggling to find ways to co-exist, to adjust to and accommodate each other. The aim of this struggle is to realise systems that are both reflective of culture and allow for participation in the modern global environment