Abstract: I Law, however conceived, tells its addressees what to do. of decides what governs when two or more claim to tell an addressee what to do. Conflicts is, in some sense then, a of laws. Just as Hannah Arendt suggested that constitutes the walls of the polis and that domestic constitutional is in some sense prior to and distinct from the local and national politics it enables, (1) so too a rethought international law--as a of laws--offers exciting possibilities for international or transnational--not merely interstate--politics in an era of increased globalization. The articles in this symposium suggest that international law, rethought, could constitute another way of thinking not only about international commercial transactions, but also about meaningful cross-state politics and actions by non-simply-state players. When the traditional forms, contexts, and inscriptions of international are shaken up just a bit, they offer--to jurisprudence and political theory, but to other fields as well--fresh ways of considering old questions of relations between states and international law, of relations between domestic and fundamental rights, of the recognition of everyday relationships and statuses of persons under varying local and customs, and of the proper governance of financial transactions across markets. In its openness to a multiplicity of and to what counts as and in its attention to questions of what to do, of as the of of our time productively challenges mainstream political-theoretical accounts of sovereignty and citizenship. As it does so, it also blurs the ostensibly bright lines between public and private, state and individual, that seem to ground many liberal institutions of law. The articles thus provoke us to think further not only about and politics, but also about what is to become of as we know it. In the far-ranging accounts of international these articles provide, international appears in many guises. Conflicts of law. Transnational law. Lex mercatoria. International merchant. Laws of business transactions. Global economic law. Extraterritorial state law. Normative ordering. System of regulation. Technique. Principle. Rules. Form. Practice. Outmoded. And revitalized--or potentially so. Conventionally conceived, international distinguishes itself from public international by its concern not with involving states and public--or criminal and constitutional--law, but with suits between parties, in such areas as torts, contracts, property, and family law. Private international or conflicts law traditionally addresses which governs when parties disagree as to whose should govern. The rethought international that emerges from this issue draws attention to international and transnational--not merely interstate--conflicts. And the described ensue among parties outside, beyond, within states--rather than between private parties. Even as are addressed by state institutions, the articles emphasize the permeable and overlapping identities of legal parties whose primary identification is not state citizenship and whose appeal to is not necessarily to that of positive state law. Together, the articles thus suggest that international may offer fruitful insights into the multitudinous and multilayered of the more-broadly conceived laws of a global age. The importance of this insight transcends the scholarly field and practice of that area of variously known as of or international law. It resonates for all who are interested in the meanings and possibilities of and of politics and judgment in a so-called era of globalization. In what follows, this Afterword first shows how questions of relate to questions of sovereignty, citizenship, and the public-private distinction in politics and economics. …
Publication Year: 2008
Publication Date: 2008-06-22
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 1
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