Thus, the local, the national, and the international are all constantly
shifting concepts. Accordingly, scholars of law and globalization must study
the back and forth of the feedback loops: How do local actors access the
power of NGOs? How are governmental and foundation funding decisions
made, and how do funding priorities affect the projects undertaken around the
world? How are global norms deployed locally? Do local concerns get strategically transformed by elected elites at the national level? How do U.N.
bureaucracies foster the creation of a cadre of “local” actors who are more
aligned with other U.N. officials than with those in their “home” countries?
What role do Western universities play in the creation of national and local
norms given that many “local” elites are educated abroad? Only through a
more fine-grained, nuanced understanding of the way legal norms are passed
on from one group to the other and then transformed before spreading back
again can law and globalization scholars begin to approach the multifaceted
ways in which legal norms develop.