International Law, Acceleration and Desynchronization

Abstract According to sociologist Hartmut Rosa, the genuinely new thing about present-day globalization consists not in the international exchange of capital, goods or information ‘but rather in the speed with which they transpire’. Simultaneously, Rosa and others observe that not every aspect of social life accelerates at the same speed, which creates processes of desynchronization between and within the economy, society and politics. This article suggests that the literature on acceleration provides three important lessons for international law and its relationship with globalization. First, although many scholars have argued that international trade and investment law have considerably shaped present-day globalization, the acceleration literature suggests that the international law of transportation and communication have played an equally or more important role. Second, the speed at which different areas of international law evolve is a critical factor in understanding who wins and who loses in the global arena. This adds a new angle to the literature on the fragmentation of international law, which has generally overlooked the different temporalities of international regimes. Third, this article claims that experiences of predictability vary significantly depending on each actor’s relationship to processes of acceleration. In present-day globalization, some people experience stabilization, while others stand still.