Globalisation and the English Judiciary

Abstract

Globalisation has been analysed under firms, markets and regulation and needs “the study of plural webs of many kinds of actors which regulate while being regulated themselves”. This article considers how globalisation has affected the United Kingdom, English lawyers and the English Judiciary. Citation of authorities both from Europe and the United States have become commonplace. Human Rights legislation has needed an understanding of how the European Convention has been construed within Europe. The task of the lawyer, or the judge is not just to find the will of a national legislator, but to look for norms from a variety of sources, national, sub-national and supranational. How should legal education face these problems? Some suggest an “anthropological” view of legal education – less superficial, less tied to a specific hierarchical view and more open to an understanding of what will work in each locality. The article goes on to discuss generic skills as an approach to teaching the global lawyer, questions relating to the global law firm, comments on forum shopping, the “island” mentality, recession and globalisation effects disguised in other ways. The reforms of the civil procedure system at the beginning of the millennium could fall into the latter category.