Extralegality

Practices that lie beyond the formally legal have been endemic to urban life through history, and have been a key focus of a great deal of research in urban anthropology. Urban landscapes and organization are shaped in diverse ways by local interpretations of what is legal, enforcement undertaken in relation to the extralegal, and responses to such enforcement. Extralegality includes three domains: the illegal, the informal, and the not-yet-(il)legal, the latter involving issues not yet decided by a legal system. Our usage avoids a dichotomy between legal and illegal, encourages attention to fuzzy or contested boundaries between these domains, and extends the range of issues in this field that are relevant to urban anthropology. It encourages us to consider activities beyond the strictly legal carried out by rulers as well as the more common focus on the illegalities of the ruled.