ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides a relational perspective on the making of transnational law. It explores encounters between international, national and local norms and practices in four interrelated spheres of life and law: family, religion, media and market. The book provides an empirical foundation for a critical assessment of the assumptions and presumptions underlying legal discourse in what used to be perceived as culturally homogenous societies bounded by national borders. It explores the norm-generating processes embedded in transnational personal, social, religious and economic relations. The book shows how the dynamics of accelerated mobility of people, technologies and laws reinforce the semi-autonomous character of law. It explores, through a sociolegal lens, the relationship between both national majorities and minorities and between majorities and minorities within the minority groups. The book turns attention to the living law of Muslim diasporic communities in Europe.
