The article focuses on the legal trends upon which comparative legal studies rely when they work out the mainstream narrative of globalisation. When assessing the operational rules that preside globalisation, as well as its most relevant features (such as efficiency of the legal systems; homogeneisation; convergence of laws; the new universal in global legal language), comparative legal scholars usually consider globalisation as a contemporary occurrence, without taking into account the historical roots of its current patterns. Nor they consider it as a paradigm, which has proven to be useful when it comes to studying the most recent developments in global commercial law. Thus, the article aims at detecting the legacies of the former British Imperial colonial policies on the establishment of the global commercial law. To this extent, it also examines the foundations of the British colonial and trade policies, as well as their reconfiguration under the Americanisation of the common law. In order to govern the Empire firmly “rooted” on deep oceans, the common law legal tradition experienced several patterns of legal change. Indeed, the Imperial global trade network made it necessary to accommodate the English legal tradition, which was primarily conceived as to serve land and feudal interests, with an a-territorial, global market.

«Benefitting the Commerce of the Mother Country »: paradigmi ‘coloniali’, law merchant e globalizzazione politica

Matteo Nicolini
2017-01-01

Abstract

The article focuses on the legal trends upon which comparative legal studies rely when they work out the mainstream narrative of globalisation. When assessing the operational rules that preside globalisation, as well as its most relevant features (such as efficiency of the legal systems; homogeneisation; convergence of laws; the new universal in global legal language), comparative legal scholars usually consider globalisation as a contemporary occurrence, without taking into account the historical roots of its current patterns. Nor they consider it as a paradigm, which has proven to be useful when it comes to studying the most recent developments in global commercial law. Thus, the article aims at detecting the legacies of the former British Imperial colonial policies on the establishment of the global commercial law. To this extent, it also examines the foundations of the British colonial and trade policies, as well as their reconfiguration under the Americanisation of the common law. In order to govern the Empire firmly “rooted” on deep oceans, the common law legal tradition experienced several patterns of legal change. Indeed, the Imperial global trade network made it necessary to accommodate the English legal tradition, which was primarily conceived as to serve land and feudal interests, with an a-territorial, global market.
2017
Global law
Globalizzazione
Colonial policy
Common Law
Impero britannico
law merchant
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11562/971964
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