Advanced Introduction to Law and Globalisation
Jaakko Husa
Extract
Herein, first of all, lies the central challenge for the comparative law teacher and legal theorist in the field of globalised legal education: the absence of any worldwide agreement, in theory as well as in practice, about the central object of globalised legal studies, namely ‘the law’ itself.1Werner Menski
Where does legal globalisation start from? When it comes to earlier forms of legal globalisation like the spread of Roman law or colonialism that we dealt with in Chapter 2, we have the benefit of temporal distance, which is helpful in analysis of factors behind globalising processes. One of the key difficulties involved is of a theoretical nature and has to do with our framework of legal thinking. What actually is it that we mean by law? Obviously, things like global law or rule of law, constitutionalism, and lex mercatoria are what we mean by ‘law’ or by ‘legal’. In the preceding chapters we used the notion of legality, legalities in the plural, to refer to various forms of law, partially overlapping and sometimes colliding. The issue is not, however, conceptual or merely a question of definition. When it comes to legal globalisation there are also serious theoretical issues involved that go beyond substantive legal issues. We may think that the law is now global but, then again, what do we mean by ‘law’?
Before laws and other types of normativities spill over the borders we need to have an underlying idea according to which laws can...
You are not authenticated to view the full text of this chapter or article.
Elgaronline requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books or journals. Please login through your library system or with your personal username and password on the homepage.
Non-subscribers can freely search the site, view abstracts/ extracts and download selected front matter and introductory chapters for personal use.
Your library may not have purchased all subject areas. If you are authenticated and think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.