ABSTRACT
In the last two chapters, we developed two concepts, the oligarchic state and the compound corporation. Our purpose was to use these concepts to illuminate the processes by which states and corporations combine their respective powers to advance commercial interests. As we have seen, oligarchic states and compound corporations have directed their common energies to various legal projects in different times and places; at times, these states and corporations combined forces across jurisdictional borders. In doing so, they created a trans-jurisdictional commercial domain. In the present chapter, we introduce a third concept, ‘the dual legal order’, to explore how such a domain is created. As the adjective ‘dual’ indicates, we are also concerned with a second domain, the local political domain. The division between the trans-jurisdictional and local political domains varies over time and according to place.
