Global Legal Pluralism
A Jurisprudence of Law beyond Borders

Proposes a multidisciplinary approach that seeks to grapple with the pluralist reality rather than ignoring it.

Paul Schiff Berman (Author)

9781107651500, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 6 March 2014

358 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.48 kg

'There is a great deal to admire in this impressive book … Global Legal Pluralism contains a remarkable richness of details and exposition that is balanced with a sensible recognition of the variation in perspectives on the most pressing issues of the day.' Richard A. Wilson, Journal of Law and Society

We live in a world of legal pluralism, where a single act or actor is potentially regulated by multiple legal or quasi-legal regimes imposed by state, substate, transnational, supranational and nonstate communities. Navigating these spheres of complex overlapping legal authority is confusing and we cannot expect territorial borders to solve all these problems. At the same time, those hoping to create one universal set of legal rules are also likely to be disappointed by the sheer variety of human communities and interests. Instead, we need an alternative jurisprudence, one that seeks to create or preserve spaces for productive interaction among multiple, overlapping legal systems by developing procedural mechanisms, institutions and practices that aim to manage, without eliminating, the legal pluralism we see around us. Global Legal Pluralism provides a broad synthesis across a variety of legal doctrines and academic disciplines and offers a novel conceptualization of law and globalization.

Part I. Mapping a Hybrid World: 1. Introduction
2. A world of legal conflicts
Part II. Retreating from Hybridity: 3. The limits of sovereigntist territoriality
4. From universalism to cosmopolitanism
Part III. Embracing Hybridity: 5. Towards a cosmopolitan pluralist jurisprudence
6. Procedural mechanisms, institutional designs, and discursive practices for managing pluralism
Part IV. Conflict of Laws in a Hybrid World: 7. The changing terrain of jurisdiction
8. A cosmopolitan pluralist approach to choice of law
9. Recognition of judgments and the legal negotiation of difference
10. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Public international law [LBB], Jurisprudence & general issues [LA], International relations [JPS]