This Chapter outlines the challenge of determining the place of canon law between universality and cultural reality. Currently, the law sits uneasily between the universal and the cultural. This is because, since the nineteenth century, an antimodernist strand of jurisprudence has emphasised the universal at the expense of the cultural. This tension is particularly evident in Catholic natural law. This example illustrates why canon law tends to universalise its claims, thereby marginalising culture and the diversity of the local churches. However, the case of natural law also shows that there are alternatives to the marginalisation of culture. Some natural law theories propose a non-exclusive view of nature and culture. Adopting this perspective reveals that all legal rules are cultural artefacts. In order to provide an analytical framework for studying law as culture and the tensions deriving from cross-cultural encounters, this Chapter also discusses the book’s use of the term culture and clarifies its Geertzian approach to legal culture.