ABSTRACT
State-centred economics, law and government have, it seems, been transcended by a ‘new global order’ which is irrepressible, irreversible and inevitable. Fans want to move the process faster. Critics seek ways to mitigate its effects. There are no alternatives. Resistance to globalisation is futile. This chapter describes some representations as simplistic, misleading and disempowering. It argues that the state’s role is more contingent in the way it facilitates the globalisation of capital through the transformation of policy and law at the national level and the coordination of policy and law internationally. This bifurcation of sites has begun to produce some serious tensions between the domestic and international jurisdictions. If governments are seen to act against the best interests of those they claim to represent, people can and do take action; some even revolt. Global economic policy and the new global constitutionalism are therefore far from irresistible or inevitable.
