THE VALUE OF COMPARATIVE AND LEGAL CULTURAL ANALYSES OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC LAW

Abstract

The effective development and operation of the law faces many obstacles. Among the more intractable yet hidden barriers to the law are legal cultural disconnects and discontinuities. These occur when opposing legal cultural characteristics from different legal cultures are forced to interact as part of the implementation of the law across two different legal cultures. That conflictual interaction can impede or block the success of that law. While present in domestic legal systems, those conflicts are more likely and the conflicts may be deeper between the many different legal cultures involved in the international legal order. Identification of such legal cultural disconnects and discontinuities is the first step towards developing strategies to ameliorate potential conflicts between opposing legal cultural characteristics. That identification requires examination of the relevant legal systems with legal culture in mind a legal cultural analysis. But, that methodology is rarely employed. To the extent we do see legal cultural analyses, they are applied almost exclusively in the domestic arena. When it is applied across legal systems it becomes a part of comparative law methodology. This merger of comparative law and legal cultural approaches is unusual, indeed almost unheard of in the international legal arena. This thesis explores that methodology, to show it is possible and valuable, through the use of case-studies employing the methodology to identify such legal cultural conflicts. To highlight the suitability of the methodology and to help us understand the field under examination, the case studies focus on the area of international economic law. As a result of the analyses, numerous insights are revealed that help us to better understand international economic law, public international law, and legal culture. Most critically, the analyses clearly show the applicability and value of legal cultural analyses within the international legal order.