The Diffusion of Law ─ The Movement of Laws and Norms Around the World

In considering diffusion from a global perspective, this book provides timely new insights into its application in a variety of fields and at many levels of both legal and non-legal orderings. This collection contributes to the wider theoretical debate concerning the movement of law and legal norms by engaging with concrete examples of legal diffusion, in jurisdictions as diverse as Albania, the Czech Republic, Poland and Kuwait. These examples, taken together, provide a comprehensive illustration of the theoretical debates concerning the diffusion of laws and norms in terms of both process and form. This international, multi-disciplinary and multi-methodological volume brings together scholars from law and social science with experience in mixed and hybrid jurisdictions, and advances the conversation about legal and normative diffusion across the academy. It represents a robust challenge to many preconceived ideas about legal movement and, as such, will be of interest to academics and students working in the fields of Law, Sociology, Anthropology, Political Science, Legal Education and comparative method.

Sue Farran is a Professor of Laws at Northumbria University, UK, and an Adjunct Professor at the University of the South Pacific. She has a long-standing interest in comparative law and legal pluralism, and much of her published research uses case studies from the island countries of the South Pacific region to focus on issues of human rights, legal pluralism, the challenges of development and sustainability, globalisation and legal colonialism. In particular she is interested in the interface between legal systems and normative frameworks within states and between states, and the relationship between national, regional and international players in shaping and developing legal responses to contemporary issues. Sue has contributed to two other collections in this series: ’Scotland: Is the tartan fading?’ in A Study of Mixed Legal Systems: Endangered, Entrenched or Blended (2014 Ashgate) for which she was also lead editor, and ’Pacific punch: tropical flavours of mixedness in the Island Republic of Vanuatu’ in Palmer, Mattar and Koppel (eds) Mixed Legal Systems East and West (2015 Ashgate). James Gallen is a graduate and Scholar of Trinity College Dublin and a graduate of New York University School of Law. He is a former Transitional Justice Scholar at New York University and has served as an Intern and Fellow at the International Center for Transitional Justice in New York and Kathmandu. He is a lecturer in the School of Law and Government at DCU. James defended his Ph.D. thesis in the School of Law at Trinity College Dublin in May 2012. His doctoral thesis examines the relationship between transitional justice, peace-building and economic development in international law. His research interests include human rights, international law and legal and political philosophy. His present research agenda concerns the implementation of policy coherence in international assistance to transitions and a transitional justice approach to child sex abuse in the Roman Cat