Buddhist Rules About Rules: Procedure and Process in the (Theravāda) Buddhist Legal System

Benjamin Schonthal

Pages 539–573, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avab025

This Article examines rules of procedure and process that structure the Buddhist legal system in the Theravāda tradition, the dominant tradition of Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia. Drawing on important Buddhist texts written in Pāli as well as evidence from monastic legal practices in contemporary Sri Lanka, it argues that one can find within the Theravāda tradition a robust body of what H.L.A. Hart would call “secondary rules,” which determine how monks ought to apply prohibitions, manage disputes, and administer sanctions.