The Economist, April 23, 2011 at 72, praises a book by Pankaj Ghemawat. His World 3.0 demolishes the world-is-flat argument, proving from many angles that globalization has much more modest manifestations. For example, “according to a study a few years ago, less than 1% of all American companies have any global operations.” Or, “Exports are equivalent to only 20% of global GDP.”
Ghemawat explodes the myth that the world is being taken over by a handful of giant companies. “The level of concentration in many vital industries has fallen dramatically since 1950 and remained roughly constant since 1980.” It follows that the number of law departments has not shrunk (See my post of Dec. 31, 2010: estimates of total number of worldwide law departments with 9 references from 2010.).
The very largest law departments deal with international legal issues, and the biggest law firms want to play up that angle (as they angle for clients). But by and large the fearsome tidal wave of globalization may be a modest breaker (See my post of Dec. 5, 2010: globalization and internationalization with 13 references and 3 metaposts.).