Abstract
The theme Exploring Legal Borderlands has been used as an inspiration for contemporary research at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies (CSLS) at the University of Oxford since 2015, when Naomi Creutzfeldt and Petra Mahy organised a stream at the Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) Conference at the University of Warwick. Importantly, this research agenda remains relevant and a series of papers have been presented at the subsequent annual SLSA conferences in Lancaster (2016), Newcastle (2017), Bristol (2018), and more recently in Leeds (2019). In the last five years, various scholars presented their innovative interdisciplinary research at this stream and it remained organized by junior scholars affiliated with CSLS and the University of Oxford. However, the definition of legal borderlands was not provided in a clear statement. Legal borderlands, as understood in this issue, are about this ambiguity inherent in a world of multiple normative orders. The following issue’s originality consists in the conceptual exploration of the idea of legal borderlands. In an increasingly interconnected world of diverse and often conflicting normative orders, such research is particularly relevant. As far as it concerns this article, in addition to this introduction, Section II briefly examines the legal boundaries and the dichotomy between (il)legality and a-legality. Section III focuses on normative pluralism and the development of juridical orders. Section IV discusses global regulation as an expansion of legal borderlands. Section V brings concluding remarks and summarizes the articles that follow.
Highlights
The theme Exploring Legal Borderlands has been used as an inspiration for contemporary research at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies (CSLS) at the University of Oxford since 2015, when Naomi Creutzfeldt and Petra Mahy organised a stream at the Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) Conference at the University of Warwick
Recognizing the descriptive accuracy and the empirical reality of overlapping, contesting orders, what type of institutional arrangements are better attuned to principles of democratic participation, individual liberty, and socio-economic equality? Is fragmentation and distribution of authority among public and private actors fulfilling such a normative orientation? Are moderate positions of inclusion and recognition of contesting orders under the auspices of a centralized authority better suited to the demands of multicultural and economically liberal and globalized societies? Yet, it is questionable whether this recognition still allows us to speak of
‘pluralism’, considering that the incorporation of norms under state hierarchy appears contradictory with the original impetus of pluralism
Summary
The theme Exploring Legal Borderlands has been used as an inspiration for contemporary research at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies (CSLS) at the University of Oxford since 2015, when Naomi Creutzfeldt and Petra Mahy organised a stream at the Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) Conference at the University of Warwick.[3]. For instance, the conduct of individuals who challenge the status quo by performing acts that are contrary to black letter law, while, at the same time, appealing to normative ideals of justice to persuade society that their action is legitimate In this context, it is fair to consider that political protesters, social activists and counter-hegemonic leaders are renegotiating the legal borderlands and may transform established expectations of behaviours in society. If law regulates behaviour by setting subjective, material, spatial, and temporal boundaries, its “limits distinguish a legal order from the domain of what remains legally unordered for it”.9 Examining these legal boundaries and limits, Hans Lindahl developed his concept of a-legality, that is, “strange behaviour and situations that, evoking another realm of practical possibilities, question the boundaries of (il)legality”.10. This brings us to a key aspect of legal borderlands: Normative pluralism
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