Globalization and the Theory of International Law Frank garcia* Boston College Law School Contemporary globalization both requires, and permits, the re-casting of international law away from a"society of states "model and towards a model of global society and even global community. By effectively eliminating both time and space factors in social interaction, globalization is changing the nature of global social relations, intensifying the obsolescence of the society of states"model, and demanding al fundamental change in the social theory of international law towards a global society of persons. Because of these changes, globalization requires that we re-cast international law into a global public law, and expand the domain of justice from the domestic into the global, as the fundamental normative criterion for international law. Through a profound re-examination of core international legal doctrines and institutions such as boundaries sovereignty, legitimacy, citizenship, and the territorial control of resources, the international law of a society of states can be re-fashioned into the global public law of a global society II. From States to Persons: Re-conceptualizing Global Legal Regulation The dominant contemporary account of the social basis of international law has been the society of states "model. In this view, to the extent that international law s This essay is drawn from a larger work-in-progress delivered as a working paper at MIT, Brandeis, and Boston College. The author would like to thank those audiences for their helpful input, and Mark Toews for his able research assistance. This essay was prepared with the support of the Boston College Law School fr francis Nicholson fund See generally CHARLES BEITZ, POLITICAL THEORY AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 67-123(1979) (overview of the society of states model of international relations, superseding earlier Realist paradigm)“Globalization and the Theory of International Law” Frank J. Garcia* Boston College Law School I. Intro Contemporary globalization both requires, and permits, the re-casting of international law away from a “society of states” model and towards a model of global society and even global community. By effectively eliminating both time and space as factors in social interaction, globalization is changing the nature of global social relations, intensifying the obsolescence of the “society of states” model, and demanding a fundamental change in the social theory of international law towards a global society of persons. Because of these changes, globalization requires that we re-cast international law into a global public law, and expand the domain of justice from the domestic into the global, as the fundamental normative criterion for international law. Through a profound re-examination of core international legal doctrines and institutions such as boundaries, sovereignty, legitimacy, citizenship, and the territorial control of resources, the international law of a society of states can be re-fashioned into the global public law of a global society. II. From States to Persons: Re-conceptualizing Global Legal Regulation The dominant contemporary account of the social basis of international law has been the “society of states” model.1 In this view, to the extent that international law * This essay is drawn from a larger work-in-progress delivered as a working paper at MIT, Brandeis, and Boston College. The author would like to thank those audiences for their helpful input, and Mark Toews for his able research assistance. This essay was prepared with the support of the Boston College Law School Fr. Francis Nicholson Fund. 1 See generally CHARLES BEITZ, POLITICAL THEORY AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 67-123 (1979) (overview of the society of states model of international relations, superseding earlier Realist paradigm). 1