ABSTRACT
The rights discourse is an integral part of the highly dynamic social process through which the content and boundaries of social norms are negotiated, and social relations, practices and institutions are created over time. These norms, relations, practices and institutions are parts of the interconnected networks of socio-cultural communications, economic exchanges and political and military interdependencies that transcend the traditional national and cultural boundaries and spaces of sovereign states. Various chapters in this collection bear witness that the rights discourse is no longer contained by local conditions and factors belonging to one society, one culture or one nation state. Today, states no longer hold the monopoly on regulating many of the social and economic relationships that traditionally fell within their jurisdiction, 1 which has long-term implications for the way we conceive of, define and study the relationship between law (in terms of the sovereign state) and society (in terms of locally constructed relationships, practices, cultures and institutions). 2 As William Twining points out, we can no longer offer an adequate account of law in the modern world without paying ‘some attention to the significance of transnational nongovernmental organisations […] to people that are nations without states […] to organised crime, liberation movements, multi-national companies, transnational law firms and significant classes such as herds of displaced persons […]’. 3
