The Politics of Global Legal Pluralism

Abstract

Global legal pluralism is one of the most influential contemporary theories dealing with questions concerning transnational and global law. It is often presented as an approach which can open up new channels for political action in an environment which is usually hostile to politics. This article takes up three of the most representative authors within this field (Paul Schiff Berman, Nico Krisch and Gunther Teubner) and shows why the politics of global legal pluralism is in the end rather disappointing. In fact, the politics promoted by global legal pluralists is shallow and cannot account either for its own reflexivity or for the staging of political disagreement.

Keywords: Transnational Law; Global Legal Pluralism; Normative Hybridity; Political Reflexivity; Political Disagreement