Abstract
This chapter highlights the creative tension between the two sides of the oeuvre of MacCormick the intellectual and the person: the local and the cosmopolitan. Neil?s biography and convictions attracted him to the “in-between”, an orientation which helped shape and mould his intellectual world-view by rendering him sensitive to questions that tended to be ignored or sidelined in mainstream theories. This is the background against which MacCormick developed his many contributions to legal theory (his post-positivistic institutional theory of law), and political theory (his views on democratic nationalism and supranationalism), and which prompted him to analyse the pluralistic structures of the democratic constitutional political order (both at supranational and at infranational levels). This background helps us to come to terms with the actual implications and significance of MacCormick’s constitutional pluralism and to reconsider the tensions in MacCormick’s shift from radical to moderate pluralism.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
“Patterns of Influence: A Study of Interpersonal Influence and of Communications behavior in a Local Community”, in: P. F. Lazarsfeld and F. N.Stanton (eds), Communications Research, 1948–1949 (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1949).
- 2.
An intellectual biography of MacCormick by Maksymilian Del Mar has been commissioned by Stanford University Press as part of their Jurists: Profiles in Legal Theory series. It is scheduled to appear in 2013. An edited collection on the Scottish dimension of MacCormick’s life and work will appear later in 2011; N. Walker (ed) MacCormick’s Scotland (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011).
- 3.
This holistic approach is never more apparent than in his final book, written in the last year of his life; Practical Reason in Law and Morality (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).
- 4.
See, in particular, N. MacCormick, Questioning Sovereignty (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), Chapter 7.
- 5.
See, for example, D. Curtin and I. Dekker, “The EU as a ‘Layered’ International Organization: Institutional Unity in Disguise”, in: P. Craig & G. de Búrca (eds), The Evolution of EU Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999); A. von Bogdandy, “The European Union as a Supranational Federation: A Conceptual Attempt in the Light of the Treaty of Amsterdam” (2000) 6 Columbia Journal of International Law, pp. 27–54.
- 6.
See, for example, O. Gerstenberg and C. Sabel, “Directly-Deliberative Polyarchy: An Institutional Ideal for Europe”, in: Ch. Joerges and R. Dehousse (eds), Good Governance in the European Union (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
- 7.
See, for example, MacCormick, note 4 supra, Chapter 1; and, at greater length, N. MacCormick, Institutions of Law: An Essay in Legal Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).
- 8.
MacCormick, note 4 supra, p. 14.
- 9.
Ibid., Chapter 8. See, also, N. MacCormick, “Sovereignty and After”, in: H. Kalmo and Q Skinner (eds), Sovereignty in Fragments (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010).
- 10.
See, in particular, his “Beyond the Sovereign State” (1993) 56 Modern Law Review, pp. 1–18.
- 11.
MacCormick, note 4 supra, p. 117.
- 12.
For a good recent overview, see J. Baquero Cruz, “The Legacy of the Maastricht-Urteil and the Pluralist Movement” (2008) 14 European Law Journal, p. 389.
- 13.
N. Walker, “Constitutional Pluralism in Global Context”, RECON Online Working Paper, 2010/3.
- 14.
See, for example, N. Walker, “Beyond boundary disputes and basic grids; Mapping the global disorder of normative orders” (2008) 6 International Journal of Constitutional Law, pp. 373–396.
- 15.
MacCormick, note 4 supra, p. 117.
- 16.
Ibid., p. 121.
- 17.
M. Walzer, “Nations and Universe”, in: David Miller (ed), Thinking Politically: Essays in Political Theory (New Haven CT: Yale University Press, 2007), pp. 183–218, at 187.
- 18.
Ibid., p. 184.
- 19.
See B. Kingsbury, “The Concept of ‘Law’ in Global Administrative Law” (2009) 20 European Journal of International Law, pp. 23–57, at 31–34.
- 20.
Ibid., p. 32.
- 21.
Ibid., p. 30.
- 22.
See M. Kumm, “The Cosmopolitan Turn in Constitutionalism: On the Relationship between Constitutionalism in and beyond the State”, in: J. L. Dunoff and J. P. Trachtman (eds), Ruling the World? (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), pp. 258–325.
- 23.
See, in particular, MacCormick, note 3 supra; see, also, N. MacCormick, Rhetoric and the Rule of Law: A Theory of Legal Reasoning (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).
- 24.
See, in particular, MacCormick, note 3 supra, Chapters 1–5. For an incisive analysis of the Kantian and Smithian influences in his work, see M. Del Mar, “The Smithian Categorical Imperative: How MacCormick Smithified Kant”, SSRN (2010).
- 25.
M. Maduro, “Contrapunctual Law: Europe’s Constitutional Pluralism in Action”, in: N. Walker (ed), Sovereignty in Transition (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2003), pp. 501–538.
- 26.
N. Krisch “The Case for Pluralism in Postnational Law”, LSE Legal Studies Working Papers 12/2009, available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1418707. See, also, his Beyond Constitutionalism: The Pluralist Structure of Postnational Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).
- 27.
See, for example, some of the doubts expressed by Krisch himself; “The Case for Pluralism in Postnational Law”, note 26 supra, pp. 14–17.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Walker, N. (2011). The Cosmopolitan Local. In: Menéndez, A., Fossum, J. (eds) Law and Democracy in Neil MacCormick's Legal and Political Theory. Law and Philosophy Library, vol 93. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8942-7_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8942-7_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-8941-0
Online ISBN: 978-90-481-8942-7
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawPhilosophy and Religion (R0)