John Comaroff is the Hugh K. Foster Professor of African and African-American Studies and of Anthropology, Oppenheimer Fellow in African Studies and at Harvard University. Before moving to Harvard in 2012, he held a Distinguished Professorship at the University of Chicago and a Research Professorship at the American Bar Foundation; he is also an Honorary Professor at the University of Cape Town. Besides his influential work on African societies, colonial and postcolonial, much of it co-authored with his wife Jean Comaroff, he is known for his publications on the role of law in capitalist societies. With books such as “Rules and Processes. The Cultural Logic of Dispute in and African Context”, “Law and Disorder in the Postcolony“, and his works on law and witchcraft, he has gained a high profile also beyond anthropology in the field of law & society. For the special juridikum issue on “Knowledge in Law“ Andrea Kretschmann has interviewed John Comaroff on the contemporary role of the law and its significance for lay people.