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JUSTINMCDANIELLAOS, BUDDHIST ART IN. SeeSoutheast Asia,
Buddhist Art in
LAW AND BUDDHISM
Comparative jurisprudence divides legal systems into
families or types based on cultural and historical ori-
gins. Buddhist law is the most recent entrant into the
category of religious legal systems, a category that in-
cludes Islamic law, biblical law, Hindu law, and Tal-
mudic law. The development of Buddhist law as a
disciplinary subject has been slow because of the lack
of a single unifying religious language or script and
Buddhism’s wide cultural dispersal throughout Asia.
Scholars have also presumed that Buddhism did not
have an obvious relationship to secular legal systems
because of its distinction between lay and monastic
populations and its tolerant, as opposed to mutually
exclusive, approach to local religions and politics.
More recent studies, however, have demonstrated that
the influence of Buddhism on law and political systems
has been profound.
There are at least four ways in which Buddhism in-
teracts with law. First, Buddhism itself incorporates a
monastic law code, the VINAYA, and special discipli-
nary procedures for the monastic population. This
code has been analyzed extensively and functions as a
template for secular rules. Second, some regions have
created Buddhist states following the example of
AS ́OKA, an early Buddhist political leader. Sri Lanka,
Bhutan, and Thailand are current examples. Third,
Buddhism has been a significant social force in shap-
ing the cultural attitudes toward law and the legal sys-
tem in many Asian countries that are not Buddhist
states. The time period and the local context from
which Buddhism was exported to the country, as well
as the local context into which it has been adopted, are
all important factors. Fourth, when the local popula-
tion reasons through the lens of Buddhism, the legal
system can be significantly affected. The form of rea-
soning and the backdrop of the vinaya rules, as well as
the foundational principles of Buddhism, such as
KARMA(ACTION), ANITYA(IMPERMANENCE), causation,
factoral reasoning, and right action, can all strongly af-
fect a legal system.
The origins of internal Buddhist monastic law are
clear. After his enlightenment, S ́akyamuni Buddha be-
gan to collect a group of disciples who followed his
teachings. As part of the process of institutional defi-
nition, he made hundreds of casuistic determinations
about the proper behavior, clothing, and speech of in-
dividuals, and he shaped the collective rituals of the
SAN ̇GHA. The Suttavihan ̇gasection of the vinaya de-
scribes these early legal decisions. There are no simi-
lar legal decisions for the LAITY. In the vinaya, the most
serious offenses (parajika) for a monk—killing, steal-
ing, having sex, or misrepresenting one’s meditative
powers—result in expulsion from the order. Nuns
have an additional four parajika.The PRATIMOKSA, a
list of over two hundred PRECEPTSfor monks, and over
three hundred for nuns, is recited twice a month by the
members of every san ̇gha to remind them of the guide-
lines for their society. The procedures and rules of the
internal legal systems of monasteries and nunneries are
based on the vinaya, with a formal meeting of the full
san ̇gha serving the authoritative decision-making body.
Legal positivists argue that a religious entity is not a
state authority and that ostracism from a group is not
a true legal sanction, so the vinaya system cannot be
considered a legal system. But this analysis is based on
the misconception that law operates only in nation-
state command systems and that the authority function
in Buddhism is fulfilled by a divinity rather than the
Buddha’s designated successor, the san ̇gha.
Several regions have followed the path of the third-
century B.C.E. Magadhan emperor As ́oka by estab-
lishing Buddhist states based on received scripts,
Buddhist scriptures, and the idea of the compassion-
ate cakravartin (wheel-turning king). Such Buddhist-
inspired law codes and jurisprudential cultures evolvedLAW ANDBUDDHISM