Harry Potter and international law

Well, pop culture has finally won out, as I’ve spent this weekend finally starting to read the Harry Potter series. Now that the last book is out and I’ve got one last month of pleasure reading left, I suppose it’s a good time to figure out what all the fuss is about. Oh, and apparently I’m headed to Hogwarts this fall.

Just to make this post topical, though, I do want to register my interest in the traces of international law scattered throughout the series. See, for instance, the citation of section 13 of the Statute of Secrecy of the International Confederation of Warlocks, seemingly a transnational regulative body with the authority to prosecute offenders (Ch. 2 in Chamber of Secrets). It’s probably easier to negotiate such a powerful regime, of course, when its stakeholders (witches and wizards, I’d presume, though I’m not sure yet whether warlocks might be their own distinct group) share such a wide cultural and normative base in common.

Really, though, I’m enjoying the books, and I’ve mostly been able to put my horn-rimmed side on hold for the duration.

EDIT: Oh, I should have known: the definitive, peer-reviewed (!) survey of the law of Harry Potter was written way back in 2005.