Law Enforcement Without a State

Abstract

This article takes as a point of departure that transnational police cooperation agreements and practices change what we might call the police worldview. This may further impact on the way nation state police forces deploy their resources, the bond between police forces and nation state citizens, and the legitimacy they enjoy in the general public. There might be other, less explicit, more informal, consequences of the legal development of police cooperation measures and regulations, than those you can find in black letter law. This article will discuss some of these consequences. Through a discussion of some particulars of the Norwegian case, this article will explore whether it is possible to say that we are moving toward a European law enforcement without a state, and what something like that might look like. More specifically, I will ask two related questions: First, has globalisation and international cooperation changed the way the Norwegian police conceptualise main police tasks and allocate their resources? And second, has the bond between the Norwegian police force and the general public changed? If yes, how have these changes impacted on the perceived legitimacy of the police? The aim is not a comprehensive discussion of these complex empirical questions. The discussion of the more or less informal consequences of a range of decisions and changes of direction will ask more questions than it answers. Hopefully, readers will at least agree that asking these questions is worthwhile.