Mapping the Territory : Contextual Jurisprudence, Legal Pluralism and WTO Law and Development, A Response to William Twining's Internal Critique Thesis from the Point of Transnational Jurisprudence

In this article, I respond to Twining's lecture, ‘Globalisation and Legal Scholarship'. Through an overview of the effect these changes had on the WTO I will describe how a lawyer or scholar of an ‘established transnational field' experienced the phenomenon of globalisation. In the WTO, the question of meaningful integration of developing countries has been central to negotiations in the last two decades. After engaging in a mapping exercise with respect to development in WTO law, I will propose a method for Twining's ‘systematic rethinkings' and ‘review of the Western Canon': scholars and lawyers need to map their fields and the relevant debates in other disciplines. They should proceed to engage with the alternative rationalities of politics, history and economics that are relevant to their work. Engaging with cross-disciplinary debates has the potential to refine our legal arguments, expose hidden assumptions, reveal blind spots in legal theory and provide innovative solutions to legal problems