La mondialisation et le droit : éléments macrojuridiques de convergence des régimes juridiques

As human, cultural and economic exchanges drive the globalization process, contracts inevitably are the legal vehicle. The dialectic connection existing between globalization and contract has led to an adjustment of its role, but also to a change in the perception of the world by the contracting parties. Due to the resulting higher rationality, the best informed agents systematically take their decisions on the basis of a comparison between the different legal systems. This competition between legal systems indirectly makes them convergence. Indeed, globalization is ?multi-scaled? to the extent that all the aspects of human activities are involved, which constitute the substratum of world exchanges. In particular, all economic activities are concerned from classical exchanges of goods to banking and financial activities and transnational labor relationships. Non-economic exchanges, such as in cultural matters, are affected as well. The various branches of the different legal systems are directly influenced by these exchanges. Moreover, globalization, without putting into question the conceptual distinction between a ?national legal subject? and an ?international legal subject?, creates new legal actors : transnational actors, which generally are meant when talking of international actors. Actually, they are constituted on the basis of an ?organizationcontract? from which they derive their normative and economic power. This ?multi-scalarity? is conducive to the State loosing its monopoly over the production of legal norms. This loss comes not unexpected, but it is consciously agreed to by the States. As a proof, we only need to look to the way regulations by transnational actors are accepted within a State?s legal order. This multiplication of the sources of globalized law causes difficulties mainly due to the superimposition of the ?legal areas?. However, these difficulties will decrease as international civil society and transnational civil society meet. And this meeting favors harmonization of legal systems.