Legal Transnationalism
The growth of 'legal transnationalism’, that is, the reach of law across nation-state borders and the impact of external political and legal pressures on nation-state law undermines the main foundations of sociology of law. Modern sociology of law has assumed an 'instrumentalist' view of law as an agency of the modern directive state, but now it has to adjust to the state's increasingly complex regulatory conditions. The kind of convergence theory that underpins analysis of much legal transnationalism is inadequate for socio-legal theory, and old ideas of' law' and 'society' as the foci of sociology of law are no longer appropriate. Socio-legal theory should treat law as a continuum of unstable, competing authority claims. Instead of taking
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It is something seen but not seen; real but not fully real as a presence; mysterious, hard to pin down, and certainly hard to view clearly and as a whole. Much research is now being done on transnational regulatory processes, institutions and aspirations, but it is difficult to see how these research developments affect outlooks in sociology of law in general[G. Volkmar, Global Approaches in the sociology: problems and challenges. Law and Society, 22(1), 1995, 85-96.]. The theoretical implications of legal transnationalism unsettle the basis of Law and society' research and challenge its most basic concepts. Specifically, the meaning of both Law' and 'society' in the socio-legal field needs to be re-examined radically in the face of legal transnationalism. The emerging new pluralistic world of law, created by legal transnationalism, is one in which legal regimes with overlapping or unclear jurisdictions have indefinite relations with each other; and legal authority is relative and frequently disputed. The legal future is one of increasing displacement of traditional state-centred, positivist legal understandings[R. Cottrrrell, Transnational Communities and the Concept of Law'. Ratio Juris, 21(1), 2008, 1–18. ]. And this future is not an aberration soon to be corrected, with normal juristic service resumed and stable lines of legal authority re-established[ A. Paulus. The Legitimacy of International Law and the Role of the State. Michigan Journal of International Law, 25, 2004,
It is something seen but not seen; real but not fully real as a presence; mysterious, hard to pin down, and certainly hard to view clearly and as a whole. Much research is now being done on transnational regulatory processes, institutions and aspirations, but it is difficult to see how these research developments affect outlooks in sociology of law in general[G. Volkmar, Global Approaches in the sociology: problems and challenges. Law and Society, 22(1), 1995, 85-96.]. The theoretical implications of legal transnationalism unsettle the basis of Law and society' research and challenge its most basic concepts. Specifically, the meaning of both Law' and 'society' in the socio-legal field needs to be re-examined radically in the face of legal transnationalism. The emerging new pluralistic world of law, created by legal transnationalism, is one in which legal regimes with overlapping or unclear jurisdictions have indefinite relations with each other; and legal authority is relative and frequently disputed. The legal future is one of increasing displacement of traditional state-centred, positivist legal understandings[R. Cottrrrell, Transnational Communities and the Concept of Law'. Ratio Juris, 21(1), 2008, 1–18. ]. And this future is not an aberration soon to be corrected, with normal juristic service resumed and stable lines of legal authority re-established[ A. Paulus. The Legitimacy of International Law and the Role of the State. Michigan Journal of International Law, 25, 2004,