Law without the state

Law without the state (also called transnational stateless law, stateless law, or private legal orderings) is law made primarily outside of the power of a state.

Such law may be established in several ways:

• It may emerge in systems such as existed in feudal Europe prior to the emergence of the modern nation state with the treaty of Westphalia.^[1][2]

• It can be established as customary law such as that practiced by indigenous communities.^[3][4]

• Non-state actors may create it,^[5][6] for instance in the form of "soft law".

• According to various anarchist theories, it could result from how a society would organize itself without formal government.^[7]

References