Some Legal Aspects of Cooperation in the Context of Fragmentation of International Law

The article analyzes some legal aspects of cooperation (how, with whom and whether to cooperate) in the context of fragmentation of international law. The factors contributing to fragmentation are investigated, and its assessment is given in the context of globalization, deglobalization and the West's proclaimed attempt to replace the system of international law with a rules-based order. Ideas are developed that as some starting points for cooperation in current geopolitical situation, attention should be paid, on the one hand, to the transition to a new technological order, the basis of which is the digital economy, on the other hand, to the development of means of economic interaction in conditions of trade fragmentation, taking into account the need to solve the issue of the degree of tolerance of trade between countries with political differences and the possibility of using well-known mechanisms (e.g., parallel import, etc.) as a result of the development of the BRICS, the EAEU and the SCO. The ideas of foreign scientists about the roots of fragmentation in the context of systemic concepts of a differentiated global society, autonomous private regimes and post-national formations, etc., are highlighted and analyzed, and their viability in the context of thoughts about the future of the state is assessed. Scientific novelty is determined by the subject of the study. Among the conclusions reached by the author is the opinion that the concept of foreign researchers of the late 20th century—early 21st century on the impact of the emergence of a polycentric form of globalization in the form of social systems regulated by a certain «global» law on the fragmentation of law is explained by a number of political motives (e.g., to avoid the term «international law» by asserting the imminent birth of law, unrelated and inconsistent with state, but emanating from post-state formations, for example, «rules-based», etc.), which, however, is not confirmed by the observed decline in globalization.