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Welcome to this week's Visual Legal Analytica. In this article, I have discussed the role of a multipolar world order in shaping our legal system, principles, norms and ideas. Feel free to subscribe to Visual Legal Analytica to read the complete article for free.

Lawyering is not limited to litigation. The diversity of professional opportunities for legal professionals exist in various forms and it will only increase in the information age. Now, in this article, let us understand the concept of a multi-polar world order (in International Relations (IR)), and what implications does a multipolar world, have on the legal profession as well as the field of law. We are already seeing some trends in the modern world, which will be discussed in this article.

What is a Multi-polar World Order?

In international relations, scholars consider a multi-polar world as the most raw and exhaustive form of the realpolitik as we know. In international politics, a realpolitik refers to the political realities which shape existing domestic, intergovernmental and global institutions, be it state actors or non-state actors. Decades ago, we could not anticipate that several actors involved in money laundering can use cryptocurrencies to further their hawala transactions. If it were not for the COVID pandemic, the world could not have sought the purpose of a digital cyberspace and the necessity of force majeure clauses in contracts. As the world is still healing from the after-effects of the pandemic, the trade impact of the US-China trade war in 2018, followed by this pandemic and the Ukraine-Russia conflict in Eastern Europe has been scathing, without any doubt. Does it affect the way legal professions work? Indeed it does. However, it is necessary to have a deeper enquiry on how the multi-polar world affects the legal field.

As we understand the theories of power and influence, we must have heard terms like - a unipolar world, a bi-polar world and so on. Well, a multipolar world is quite interesting, because many notions of international relations, especially those dominated by the scholars of US Foreign Policy have been challenged by the emergence of this concept.

As per the diagram above, in the information age, we see the following trends clearly showing the emergence of a multipolar world:

Legal systems across the world adapt with the disruption of different industry sectors and their all-time impact on human lives, at both domestic and transnational levels.

The concept of alliances and ententes does not materialise in a proper fashion because the power dynamics of a multipolar world empowers the smaller allies of a larger power to take distinctive (if not hostile) paths of economic, political and diplomatic engagement. This leads countries to form their own sovereign decisions and concerns, based on their own understanding and acceptance of legal systems and principles;

Many settled questions of law in various legal systems are subject to cleavage because of the case-by-case, industry-by-industry impact of digital technologies (especially Web2 technologies). In the Global South countries, however, where many legal questions are not properly settled, newer questions of law emerge which further complicate or integrate the situation (depends on how the regulators, judges and legislators address the problem);

Countries either align with some major powers (for example the US or China), become non-aligned or become multi-aligned. Two key phenomenon come into being - justifying strategic autonomy and interplaying strategic hedging. The categorisation is furthered as follows:

If they have been aligned and stay aligned - the legal systems already influenced by the major geopolitical players in that alliance are in vogue with the major powers’ legal systems, norms and principles. Even in contentious areas such as commerce and trade (for example), some parity can be observed.
If they have been aligned and have a distinctive approach - their legal systems start becoming compatible to those of the major powers’ legal systems.
If they have been non-aligned - their legal systems stay largely neutral and unchanged by the emerging legal norms and methods across the globe (which is a rather unrealistic or unsustainable situation).
If they have become multi-aligned - their legal systems optimise the risks attached to the sovereign decisions and approaches they agree with. In the language of international law, their state practices do not bear a hostile character, yet hedge the risks associated with the distinctive legal and policy positions they strive to take.
The question of bearing hostility and abruptness on legal and public policy points of view for governments, is hard to address, despite the fact that most of such questions can be addressed within the language of international law. Yet, political power guides the realpolitik, especially how sovereignty is defined, which is why it could become a political question as to how legal systems conflicting with one another resolve the situation.

Multilateral institutions are subject to question and review, where the following trends are visible:

They adapt with time and bear institutional cum policy transformation; or
They do not adapt and render their components and subsidiaries toothless without any potential or scope of action; or
They are used by countries in groups to negotiate and establish backdoor negotiations to make incremental use of the existent systems by making small changes to (if not restore but) maintain the political purpose of the institution.

Since many (if not most) legal systems are subject to policy disruption, leading to a rise in grey areas of legal importance, hard laws and their notion in jurisprudence remains incomplete due to their being inflexible. The role of Soft Law becomes important as legal and policy prescriptions provided through help out and encourage legal innovation.

Now, in the next section, it is discussed how lawyering and legal practice has shaped itself in the wake of the multi-polar nature of the realpolitik, strictly, in the legal profession.?

Read the rest of the Article at vla.digital

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