The plurality of legal orders is an important theme in the sociology and the anthropology of law. This theme, however, has long remained in the realm of theoretical discourse and has not given rise to much empirical research. On one side, jurists who practise legal sociology obviously tend to favour the state legal order, which is particularly familiar to them and which they generally consider to be the only one with a “true” legal component. On the other side, legal sociologists — and many anthropologists — have tended to remain within the jurists’ notion of the law, especially in their empirical studies. This is a weakness of the sociology of law that needs to be corrected, hence the interest and relevance of an analysis devoted to the plurality of legal orders. We will begin by tracing the tradition of legal pluralism in the sociology of law. We will then discuss the phenomenon of non-state legal orders, the latter being particularly problematic for lawyers. This approach will finally lead us to recognize that the state legal order, considered for itself, is also a tributary of legal pluralism. Throughout the analysis, the question of the relationship that may exist between the state and non-state legal orders is at stake.