If law ever could be described as a closed system, it cannot any longer. The traditional view of the national legal system, with a basic norm and a hierarchy of norms built on it, is not a realistic paradigm. Neither is this a realistic paradigm for international law. International and domestic law jurisdictions interact in ways which the traditional paradigm does not capture. The closed systems of the law are opening up at many levels, recognising sources from the outside. The traditional pyramid is replaced by partly overlapping circles.
Markets do not follow national jurisdictions, and regulation and procedure have to respond to this. Markets, Regulation and Procedure moves across the boundaries that traditionally divide the law, discussing international and comparative law issues, and supporting a view of the law as open systems, paying due regard to one another, which can resolve many of the practical problems of international markets and enforcement of internationally recognised rights.
This collection of articles on international trade law, European law, market regulation and procedure falls in six parts. The first, ‘Reviewing National Regulation’ focuses on legal concepts and procedures in WTO and EU law. The second, ‘Nationalising the EU Directive’, discusses fundamental problems of the EU directive and its reception in national law. The third, ‘Problems of Parallel Proceedings’, is concerned with concurrent proceedings, before international courts and tribunals or before regulatory, civil and criminal bodies. A fourth, ‘Immunity or Liability’, again investigates issues of international, European and national law. The two final parts deals with two important areas of law, the fifth, ‘Money and Banking’, and the sixth, ‘European Commercial Law’.