Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book illustrates how transnational legal norms are created, evolve and are practised. They propose to do so through individual case studies on legal change. The book engages with the important and recurring question of the cultural universality of human rights as a paradigm. It explains problematize the broader normative validity as well as the ways in which human rights norms have evolved essentially as they become applied at the national level. The book traces the Court's juvenile punishment cases, examines the backlash against the Court using foreign law in its decisions and discusses why this use of foreign law in juvenile punishment cases conflicts with principles of American democracy. It explores how human rights norms are transmitted into relations governed by private law and examines how growing obstacles to norm transference are created by the expansion of companies and corporations.