Object and Purpose

Globalisation fundamentally changes the nature of economy, society and law within and beyond the state. This Project studies the emergence of transnational law as a consequence of and response to the maturing of a global world economy.

Globalisation reconfigures relations between private actors and state law and courts, creating opportunities and pressure for transnational legal norms and processes to develop. Parties to large international economic transactions increasingly rely on specialised dispute resolution mechanisms, such as international arbitration, as an alternative to domestic courts. New transnational substantive rules are devised to govern these transactions, which enriches and challenges our understanding of the law of international commercial contracts, the protection of foreign investment, conflict of laws and market regulation.

The rise of transnational law calls into question the appropriateness of conventional legal paradigms, methods and analogies. Transnational law evolves in a field of tension between local and globalised concerns and on the fault line of public and private law, thus blurring traditional distinctions between horizontal and vertical relationships and defying acquired understandings of regulation. In consequence, there is a need for reflection on the calibration of public interests in these predominantly private process and on the reconciliation of the needs both of a globalised economy and local societies. The Transnational Law Project contributes to this debate through critical analyses of the dynamics of transnational legal change and by exploring ideas on the proper design of transnational procedural and substantive law.

The purpose of the Transnational Law Project is primarily to promote scholarship in this emerging field of law, which has gained much momentum in practice but often lacks solid theoretical underpinnings.

The Project aims to enhance co-operation with respect to research and teaching on transnational regulation and dispute resolution. It brings together and provides a theme for the research of LSE academics  focused on different facets of transnational law such as private international law, international commercial law, international arbitration, investment treaty law, and international economic law, as well as international aspects of environmental law, tax law, human rights, development and regulatory theory. These aspects of transnational law also provide themes for research-led teaching on numerous undergraduate and graduate courses as well as PhD research.

The Transnational Law Project also creates a forum for enhancing a greater dialogue between the scholarly community, policymakers and practitioners through events, such as a specialist seminar series and public lectures.