Shahar Shalom Yadin (University of Southern Queensland – School of Law and Justice) has posted The Paradigm of Robert Cover’s Nomos and the Value of Normative Discourse: Applications with References to Papua New Guinea (Griffith Law Review (2026)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
Robert Cover in his ‘Nomos and Narrative’ famously enunciated the idea of the nomos—the normative world that comprehends yet extends beyond legalities and which is contextualised and located with reference to narrative. This article applies the idea of the nomos as a paradigm to explore and understand all normative aspects of human life. The article demonstrates the importance of society’s attending to and nurturing of its nomos, which can only be achieved through continuous engagement with the nomos through normative discourse. What insights can be obtained from applying such a paradigm and how could normative discourse be used to engage with, maintain and vitalise the nomos? The article explores these questions with references to Papua New Guinea, a nation whose normative world is particularly rich, dynamic and complex and which offers an interesting case of an attempt at nation-building.
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