Legal aspects of globalization

Globalization (globalisation), in its literal sense, is the process of transformation of local phenomena into global ones. The term ‘globalization’ is often used to refer to economic globalization, but it also affects legal sphere as well, because law is designed to provide peaceful and harmonious development of social relations between all subjects. But what are common aspects of globalization?

Different scientists use their own definitions of globalization, because they use various methods of exploration and have different ideological imperatives. Another reason for many conceptions of globalization is the fact, that every researcher usually works with limited number of aspects of globalization, like economics, politics, culture, technology, so called global problems (terrorism, ecology), looking for basic factors and moving forces of globalization and combinations of them in his sphere, which results in pluralism of opinions. Some authors suppose that processes of globalization are chaotic, others think that they are somehow aimed, and there is also an opinion that both tendencies take place at a time.

But there are characteristics of globalization common for all spheres, including law and system of government. Nowadays there is no global civilization on earth, and the process of globalization is unfinished. That is why the system of global governance is not finally formed; however, I think it should be, because the state is a universal form of organization of people necessary to achieve common aims, which require a lot of resources and organized efforts of many people with different peculiarities. That is why new global institutions should be formed to settle emerging problems, considering specifications, which stem from 'quality' and 'quantity' of them.

In regard to understanding the scales of global problems and processes, than it can be described rather simple, because they affect the world as a whole and everyone who lives in it, no matter where he was born or who he is. Every person chooses his own priorities and aims in life, but the aim of the humanity is to survive. And global processes can cause serious harm, if they remain uncontrolled.

For example, high levels of economic growth, cooperation, and free trade have lead to the creation of highly integrated system and the crisis, which overwhelmed the USA in 2008, proved that by spreading unchecked to other regions, regardless of the states geographical borders. And when the problems begin in other countries, the situation evolves like cancer or wildfire, because there is no more single center, and if to improve situation locally, it will change nothing. Negative processes, which continue to take place in other regions, will erase local improvement really fast and the crisis will move in unbreakable circle through all involved countries.

Another problem was announced in the UN research over development of human in 1999. The difference in income between 20% of the richest people in the world and all the others has reached the proportion of 74 to 1, which leads to unbalanced development of the world, social intolerance, and exploitation.

Environment is also in danger. Short-sighted actions of individuals and legal entities, whose activity creates exhaust fumes and pollution, destroy the eco system, and they do not care, because there is no negative effect in near-term outlook, and they don't realize themselves as a part of global world. They don't think that such actions matter or they just place their own personal interest first. However, resources of Earth are limited, and its ecology won't be able to cope with growing rates of the pollution forever.

We should bear in mind criminal sphere as well. It evolves and creates new ways of committing crimes and slipping away from the responsibility. International trade of prohibited goods like drugs, weapons, humans, body organs, masterpieces of art, and so on becomes more and more widespread and well organized. Criminals have their own banks and companies, they can hide in different countries, using imperfection of extradition systems, or even affect the politics, using money and force the have gained.

At the same time, remembering the history of wars, we must beware of conflicts. Global processes make any war, regardless of the territory where it takes place, much more dangerous, because many countries and folks have developed ties, which are stronger and more widespread, than they were before WW II. And, considering modern level of technology, any war may possibly lead to fatal consequences.

By the same token, culture is also involved with global processes. Growth of infrastructure, informational technologies, and other means of interactions between people all over the world, in the light of global rates, cause multiple clashes of cultures never seen before. And any clash by itself takes some time to settle down, and when there is so many of them at a time, people's mind may be unable to cope with it and will resist in all possible ways, which leads to nationalism. It is good when people want to reserve national self-conscious and traditions, but such emotions can be easily used by politicians or any interested party to manipulate people. And it can be extremely perilous, when any sorts of intolerance find their way out in aggressive forms, because people, fighting for their beliefs, are the most dangerous ones.

All these and many other problems are global, because they affect the world as a whole, but there is also another peculiarity, that makes them special. This peculiarity is connected with the role of the state and its cooperation with other states. A state is a political association with effective sovereignty over a geographic area and representing a population. It is designed to perform different functions, related to the organization and control over different processes and relationships in the society and with other states. International relationships are regulated by agreements between states and by some international organizations like the UN (all types of issues) or GATT (trade issues), and others, but in the global world it is not enough, because most of the inner and outer decisions of any state (especially if it is a powerful and highly integrated one) affect not only this state, but the world as a whole. International law and organizations were created by states, which accepted different obligations on the grounds of free will, to maintain effective cooperation between member states, to settle disputes, and to preserve peace. But that kind of regulation is considered by some scientists as insufficient to tackle global problems and regulate the process of globalization, so that there should be created a system of global law and governance, and international institutions can become its basis.

Structures of global governance should be created over national ones and have enough persuasive authority and real power to enforce all the subjects and objects of global world to obey its decisions and regulations. To prevent tyranny such system ought to be regulated by special laws which should: 1) reflect the most common ideals of moral and law, developed through integration of cultures and legal systems, 2) describe the inner structure and aims of its existence, 3) regulate the relationships between the global governance and national states, and 4) settle the problems of sovereignty, but, at the same time, it must stipulate possible sanctions for violators and the mechanism of persuasion, so that the system would work effectively.

That is only one of numerous points of view, how it should work, and there are lots of other theories. Many other specialists believe, that such construction is impossible and development of international relations must be based upon the principle of sovereign equality of states and other principles developed by international law.

Nowadays, in legal, governmental, and political spheres we can see a several trends of globalization and some of them worth closer consideration. The first one can be named as an 'imperial' model, the second can be represented by the European Union, the third tendency covers the law of transnational corporations and the fourth is related to the evolution of international law.

The imperial model is described by old terms like "empire", but in a new meaning. Writing about 'empire' foreign authors mean some kind of system, controlling the world as an integrity, which consists of substructures, working on national, regional and global levels.[1] And global (imperial) law should be developed in order to correspond to it. In particular, the US legal system is supposed to become a core of 'imperial law', which 'has transformed under the ideology of new liberalism and spread to the huge periphery, remained open after the end of cold war'[2].

On the other hand, the European Union represents 'the only one example of organized transfer of authority to the supranational government'[3]. The EC law combines international and supranational elements of law and makes the EC legal system unique. The EC and the EU were formed on the basis of treaties and EU constitution signed on the 24^th of October in 2004. On the basis of these documents a system of laws, which have direct application and priority over national law, was formed. They are also integrated into national law and work under judicial protection. Yet, some specialists don't believe in the existence of supranational governments, considering such integrations as a type of confederation. That makes sense, but I suppose that those new confederations have their own peculiarities provoked by globalization.

At the same time, besides supranational legal globalization there is a developing system of transnational law, mainly formed by multinational corporations. During the process of cooperation transnational corporations, states and other institutions, which deal with them, form their own consensual rules of behavior, which become a new autonomous intermediate law and order based on custom.

And there is another tendency, which can be described as an evolution of international law and organizations. When more and more states enter international organizations and reach agreements between each other, they slowly, but continuously develop integration and unify existing rules and terms. They learn how to settle different disputes and develop peaceful solutions through cooperation. And in the process of cooperation they are able to form common values and ideals, so that the source of global law would be not only the will of sovereign states, but also the will of people representing different civilizations. This way is probably the best one, however slow, and some problems have to be solved here and now.

People never know what the future holds for them, but in the developing global world they must always believe, that their deeds really matter, and understand, that every action affects the world as a whole, they must realize themselves as a part of it, because understanding and will are the keys to everything.

[1] Marks S. Empire's law // Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies. 2003. Vol. 10, N 5. P. 462.

[2] Mattei U. A theory of imperial law: a study on U.S. hegemony and the Latin resistance // Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies. 2003. Vol. 10, N 5. P. 383.

[3] Иноземцев В. Глобализация: иллюзии и реальность // Свободная мысль - XXI. 2000. N 1. С. 35.

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