ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the implications of a vastly more diverse and mobile global space for legal arrangements. Territorial systems of law catering to a majority in each country would no longer be sustainable. The first part of the analysis draws on the resources of historical experience in the Islamic world and elsewhere to devise an approach based on multiple systems of personal law detached from territory. In addition to making cosmopolitan diversity more manageable, legal pluralism would also support strongly committed ways of life. The latter part engages with existing debates over the tensions between personal liberty and group autonomy, which have arisen both in traditional societies and in relation to migration. It explores the circumstances under which legal pluralism might maximise not only liberty but also the meaningful exercise of conscience. It also suggests how such personal law systems might evolve over time, both separately and in relation to one another as world society changes.
