Comparative Law and the Political Economy of BRICS’ Future Development

Integration associations such as BRICS are playing an increasingly important role in the world. BRICS membership continues to expand each year, as the organization attracts more and more new partners and external challenges provide a new impetus for its development. BRICS member countries are expanding their scope of interaction, seeking out new forms of settlements, and setting up multilateral financial institutions and extensive infrastructure networks. All these transnational economic processes are still the result of treaty practices, which generally take into account the law of the country where disputes are supposed to be considered. More effective and large-scale economic cooperation within BRICS will require reliance on common legal ideas and principles, as well as the organization’s own arbitration system. BRICS includes different legal orders that gravitate towards both continental and Anglo-Saxon legal traditions. Islamic law also has an influence on the national legal orders of BRICS member countries. Which legal system’s principles and ideas will have a greater impact on the political economy of BRICS? Should one of the legal systems be selected as the primary one, or will BRICS become a unique structure that has created an original legal field built on principles that exist outside of time and space? Are classical civil procedure doctrine and comparative studies capable of creating the political pre-conditions for explosive growth in trade and financial cooperation within BRICS?