This short paper intends to set out a general theory underpinning the process of contractualisation of public international law. In doing so, it explains that this has chiefly been engineered through the establishment of a third sphere of regulation – in addition to the spheres of domestic law(s) and international law – namely transnational law. Both private actors and states operate through this sphere, chiefly because of its flexibility, decreased transaction costs and access to capital (which is scarce in the other two spheres). These benefits of transacting in the transnational-law sphere and the contractualisation of pertinent relationships come at a cost. Such a cost, from the perspective of human rights and parliamentary sovereignty, is explored by reference to two case-studies. The second of these, on the outsourcing of indigenous land rights, is predicated on the research and observations offered by Bhatt (2020).

中文翻译：

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国际公法的契约化

这篇简短的论文旨在提出一个支持国际公法契约化过程的一般理论。在这样做时，它解释说，这主要是通过建立第三个领域监管——除了国内法和国际法领域——即跨国法。私人行为者和国家都通过这个领域运作，主要是因为它的灵活性、降低的交易成本和获得资本的机会（这在其他两个领域是稀缺的）。在跨国法律领域进行交易的这些好处以及相关关系的合同化是有代价的。从人权和议会主权的角度来看，这样的成本是通过参考两个案例研究来探讨的。其中第二个，关于土著土地权的外包，是基于 Bhatt (2020) 提供的研究和观察。