Transnational governance and law: Global security and socio-legal studies

Transnational law and regulation is pluralistic and often characterised by friction between multiple or conflicting regimes. It is an area where socio-legal studies can make a real difference in charting how global power is being enacted. This chapter outlines three key problem areas where one can observe the transnational security governance in action – Terrorism Financing; Foreign Terrorist Fighters; and Terrorism and Extremism Online. The regulatory tools used to govern transnational problems often bear little resemblance to the formal laws used by states, including international law. Terrorist financing is a paradigmatic trans-boundary collective action problem. If states fail to effectively co-operate in their efforts, there will be gaps in the transnational chain where financing of terrorism or potentially terrorist groups can flourish. The ‘foreign terrorist fighter’ threat is a paradigmatic transboundary security problem: a globally diffuse risk difficult to counter using conventional tools of national and international law.