The master issue for the law and society field for the early 1990s may have been best described by the “crossing boundaries” metaphor that has been adopted, with variations, in the past few years as the theme of the programs of a number of professional associations whose members contribute to law and society scholarship. Apparently, in contrast to the recent past when issues of diversity and identity drew attention to differences of perspective, conflicts between cultures, the incoherence of authority, and the politics of interpretation, a move is being made to find and define the central enterprise that draws scholars together in the law and society field while avoiding the imperialism of particular perspectives or theories. The metaphor of crossing boundaries suggests respect for the boundary—for difference and for plural meanings, for integrity in separateness—and suggests a search for a concept of coherence that does not require a permanent bridging, merging, and unifying of starting points for understanding.