Global Networks Talk | Entangled Legalities in the Postnational Space

In this second Global Networks Talk in Spring 2021, Nico Krisch, Professor for International Law at the Graduate Institute Geneva, will present his research on “Entangled Legalities in the Postnational Space”.

This event will take place online via Big Blue Button.

Please register with Max Lesch | mxlschzd to receive a copy of the paper.

Abstract
Law is typically conceived on the model of the modern, Western state of the twentieth century – as a relatively self-contained system which establishes clear relations between its own norms and with norms from other legal systems. Yet this model stands in contrast with how law has been practiced for much of its history, and how it is practiced today, in particular in contexts in which transnational and international norms have gained significant weight. This article argues that, in order to account for such practices, we better frame law in terms of entanglement rather than system – as an order in which the multiplicity and interaction of legalities is often constitutive and in which the relations between norms from different origins are construed in more complex and fluid ways than the systemic image suggests. The article traces recent theoretical engagements with legal multiplicity and puts forward the concept of entanglement – borrowed from scholarship in history and cultural studies – to capture the broader forms of interaction visible in historical and contemporary studies with an empirical focus. It then develops a typology of these forms and analyses the varying dynamics behind and consequences of entangled legalities. Charting different responses to multiplicity in contemporary law, the article shows how entanglement reflects and structures today’s complex institutional and normative landscape, characterized by a diffusion of authority and competing forces of integration and distancing. Oscillating between these forces, entangled legalities emerge as a key element of the contemporary postnational legal order.