ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with some definitions, attention which may turn to placing globalization and law into an historical context. Technologically and culturally, the commonplace observation that globalization radically affects communities of all sizes - from local to national to international - is uncontroversial. Globalization and law may evoke thoughts of, for example, human rights law, international war crimes, and the proper domain of the United Nations. Globalization, as an enquiry into the increasing interconnections amongst things that happen in the world, inherently transcends notions of public and private international law norms. Mercantile law and its contemporary adjudication by private arbitration raise the very interesting potential for what has been called 'private government'. The very lively norms that underlie the seemingly timeless globalism of legal education and practice are explored in the context of a particularly pertinent legal system. Networks of mutual obligation have their own means of establishing authority and legal validity.
