Using the concept of hybridity to guide social change through legal means

This paper discusses the potential of the concept of hybridity to be used to guide or inform law reform or regulatory reform in legally plural contexts. It argues such an approach starts with the conception of multiple fluid legal orders that spill over into each other and at any one time have the potential to go in multiple different directions. Taking this understanding as a starting point leads to potentially useful ways to consider difficult issues of social regulation through law, and this is explored through an exploration of gender-based violence in Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. The paper sets out five design principles when considering a law reform project based on the insights of hybridity.