Transnational tendencies have led to a pluralistic legal environment in which emerging and established legal actors, regulatory levels and types of legal norms co-exist, compete and interact in complex ways. This challenges and changes not only how legal norms are created, applied and enforced but also when these actors, norms and processes are considered legitimate. The book investigates how states and non-state actors interact in transnational settings and pays attention to the understudied question of what effect transnational tendencies have on the legitimacy of legal actors, norms and processes. It seeks to confront three fundamental questions: Has legitimacy significantly changed? Who creates norms and with which consequences for legal procedures and norms? The book considers the question of legitimacy from a broad range of legal perspectives, including environmental law, human rights law and commercial law. It maps out the contours of legitimacy today with an emphasis on the reactions of central actors like states and courts to transnational tendencies. The book thereby provides a conceptually powerful structure within which to further debate the complexity of transnational tendencies in law and proposes innovative approaches to problem solving while designing pathways for further reflection on the development of law in a transnational context.
About the Author: Bettina Lemann Kristiansen is Professor of Sociology of Law at the Department of Law, BSS, Aarhus University. Her research interests focus on sociology of law, access to justice, legal aid, legal adjudication by non-lawyers and general tendencies in law (especially welfare regulation), such as globalisation, digitalisation and pluralism.
Kateřina Mitkidis is Associate Professor at the Department of Law, BSS, Aarhus University. Her research interests cover sustainability and law, international law of contracts, international environmental law and pharmaceutical law. She is interested in the use of private law tools to advance public interests.
Louise Munkholm is Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Law, BSS, Aarhus University. Her research interests include sociology of law and legal cultures with focus on the local enforcement of international and national labour law.
Lauren Neumann is PhD candidate at the Department of Law, BSS, Aarhus University. Her research interests include the law of armed conflict, international human rights law, and the law relating to displacement.
Cécile Pelaudeix is Research Associate at PACTE Sciences Po Grenoble. Her research interests include international law and international politics with emphasis on environmental governance in the EU and in the Arctic region.
