Abstract

The authors suggest that the real protagonists of the dialectical evolution drawn by Lustig and Weiler are different ways of being of the law itself: on the third wave, the hierarchic supremacy of international law fades. This is so because the law develops in a mixed domain where the cases at stake are controlled by both domestic and international rules. The third wave brings to the forefront a transformation of law, one that in turn entails the acknowledgment of new equilibria (among legal orders) depending on cases and circumstances, to be found through substantive assessments.