5 - The case of legal services

Summary

Chapter 5 is the first of the case studies. Its subject is a notable global carrier, the supply of legal services internationally. The object of this first case study is to examine the evidence of the impact of the WTO, and specifically of the GATS, on the inter-legalities that arise out of the provision of legal services internationally. The chapter is the first field test of the interpretations we have placed on the WTO's relationship between globalisation and the law. In this case, the test material is law itself, articulated at the very particular level of the activity we might call legal practice or legal services. With the book's interest in globalisation and law, a good starting point is the identification of a new international, possibly transnational, style of lawyers' work. The chapter suggests how this kind of lawyers' work may project around the world a distinctive brand of transaction-based and market oriented legality (based on private contract and commercial arbitration). This legal service has the potential to cut global relations loose from the regulatory specifications and cultural ties of the locality. Its style is reflected in the ways these lawyers conduct themselves in their dealings with their clients and other parties, including the ways they site and organise their work.

The chapter argues, however, that these lawyers' own legalities fail fully to negotiate the rich texture of local legal rules and practices. The inevitability of inter-legality bolsters the need to provide services locally, giving attention to the time and place of law.