ABSTRACT
Since “maps” are “selective” they may hide as much as they reveal. Thus even in the heydays of “sovereignty”, the extension of “jurisdiction” beyond the territorial boundaries led to the development of “private international law” – that is, rules for adjudicating conflicting jurisdictional claims that contradicted territorial exclusivity. It has been common among a minority of international relations researchers to point to a “New Medievalism” when attempting to map the recent developments in international relations. The “growth” of law creating “islands” of “order” in the alleged anarchy can no longer be interpreted simply as a “good thing” because having “more law” is part of the problem and not its solution. Any political order that emerges in such “laboratories” is not the result of negotiation and reciprocity. The fact that the European Union’s neighborhood policy contains similar traits indicates, however for which the vocabulary of exclusive territoriality and the distinctions between international anarchy and domestic hierarchy are too limited.
