Introduction

While these forces are undoubtedly transforming relationships between countries, businesses and individuals, the processes of globalization are also undoubtedly impacting upon the regulatory laws and frameworks that set the stage for those interactions. Just as globalization reveals a tension between the universal and the particular, so too law is increasingly embedded in global regulatory developments and debates while simultaneously being driven towards increasing specialization and diversification. In general, law is a jurisdictionally-based discipline and it is this focus on the local that often occupies a central place in legal analysis and debates. In the flattening world of globalization, the global takes on a new significance that demands the transcendence of law’s traditional local focus.