ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the dual legal order concept across time and place. It discusses various manifestations including, the free port, the export processing zone (EPZ) and the science park. An historical and territorial delimited example of a dual legal order is Penang. Dual legal orders may take myriad forms, varying according to time and place. While a common template exists, dual legal orders exhibit a range of types, including, colonial, federalist, interstate and supra-national. Federalist legal orders are typically dual legal orders in design. At initiation, constituent political jurisdictions associate with one another to develop rules for managing their trans-jurisdictional commercial affairs. Supra-national institutions such as the European Union also owe their existence to a commercial integration movement. The reach of the Economic Community extended with the Single European Act and the Maastricht Treaty. A piece of property belonging to the transnational commercial domain may transform into local political property through the action of an insurgent local political community.
