Abstract:

In societies where there is no developed legal code or existing rules and arrangements fall short meeting certain social needs in life, oral and traditional rules and norms function instead of law. Each folk group has its own sort of folk law. Traditional legal rules, which are usually resistant to change by nature, are born out of the need to solve complex situations. These rules maintain their validity and functionality until the existing situations change. In professional organizations that have traditional characteristics, specific professional norms and general principles of social law are added to the representation of folk law. In this context, in dynamic professions such as shepherding that are based on application and production, special rules that are born in coherence with the diversity of professional processes can be developed. Each traditional rule that aims at bonding and mobilizing the members of professional groups as well as maintaining the continuity of production, gradually serve as constituting components of a system of rules. This study aims to analyze and evaluate the informal legal professional rules that are developed and practiced by the shepherds who belong to the folk groups that rely on subsistent economic model in the Eastern Black Sea region animal husbandry societies. The professional application areas and functions of traditional rules that are compiled during field research are also evaluated with a multidimensional perspective in the scope of this study.

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