'BRICS Law': An Oxymoron, or From Cooperation, via Consolidation, to Codification?

In the global arena, the cooperation between the BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – covers around 42% of the world’s population and some of the world’s most dynamic emerging economies. Initially, the BRICS cooperation was suggested as an idea, and it was later welcomed as a new addition to the global governance debate about the future. The BRICS countries have already held ten consecutive summits of heads of state plus a large number of meetings at the ministerial level. The cooperation describes itself as a “cooperation and dialogue�? platform, but it has nonetheless signed a number of binding treaties and, notably, established the New Development Bank (NDB) as a permanent institution headquartered in Shanghai (China). The cooperation has also met with resistance, criticism and problems caused by the overall complexity of global affairs in a rapidly changing world. The diversity and remote locations of the BRICS countries have also been thought of as an obstacle to their successful cooperation and their ability to play an active part in global governance in the twenty-first century. The main challenge thus lies in their ability to overcome their differences and to make a difference in designing the future global political and economic world order. Against the backdrop of the global governance debate, the present paper therefore asks whether the BRICS cooperation constitutes a novel model of regionalism with multilateral aspirations, and what role law and, notably, the “rule of law�? can play in this important task. The paper includes a discussion of the extent to which the BRICS cooperation needs to be upgraded in legal and institutional terms, and possibly to proceed from cooperation via consolidation to the codification of its most important sources of global law.

generally, the precise role of law is defined as part of a sensitive process of balancing the role of law with the objectives formulated by a community, the benefits of regulation with those of deregulation, and legal flexibility with legal certainty and predictability as warranted by the rule of law. These are but a few of some relevant pairs of opposites and, in view of the current rapid change and drastic technological innovations, it is perhaps even time for a careful rethinking of the dichotomies and underlying modes of dualistic thinking altogether. Put briefly, the present era, now more frequently called the anthropocene, calls for new ideas on the future of law and its role in society as well as the world as a whole, and on the concretization of law through related concepts like, notably, the rule of law and sources of law. after ten years of successful BriCs summits of heads of state held between 2009 and 2018, and many important achievements resulting from the BriCs cooperation, it is therefore also an opportune moment to examine the role of law in the cooperation between the BriCs countries against the backdrop of global developments and trends. This paper is based on a recent publication of a compendium of BriCs texts and materials that aims to make available in a systematic way the most pertinent documents produced by the BriCs countries in different settings. Besides discussing the different stages in the evolution of the BriCs, from cooperation (section 1) via consolidation (section 2) to codification (section 3), which roughly match the temporal distinctions of "past, present and future, " the present paper aims to address the following two fundamental questions. First, has the time come for the BriCs cooperation, as a "cooperation and dialogue platform, " to aim to consolidate its large existing body of materials and treaties through the codification of core legal principles? The second, and related, question concerns the issue of finding the most adequate institutional support for the BriCs, which would lie within the range of the existing flexible system of annually rotating chairpersonships, through a virtual or a real BriCs secretariat, to a permanent BriCs institution, the name of which would still need to be found and agreed upon.

The Rule of Law in a Time of Linguistic and Cognitive Change
The problems of law (or the rule of law) in embracing "change" seem to be tied to conceptual problems related to our understanding of space and time. 4 The concepts of "law" and the "rule of law" are often described as "essentially contested concepts, " 5 in the sense that people generally agree on their existence but diverge on their concrete meaning. 6 The two concepts are closely related to each other, and one is often used to enlighten the meaning of the other, which is why they need to be considered together or brought closer. 7 a third important concept that should be included in this discourse is that of "sources of law. " The rule of law has also been said to mean different things to different people, but also to serve a wide variety of political agendas. 8 more broadly still, even the view that all concepts are essentially contested can itself be subject to contestation. 9 Thus, the same concepts are also often subject to different understandings in different times and places. For instance, over time the rule of law has frequently been transformed, 10 although some may argue that change itself is in conflict with the rule of law. 11 nevertheless, it may be that the same person will change her understanding of the meaning of "the rule of law" and of most other concepts, in spite of the maxim "venire contra factum proprium (non valet), " which means "to come against one's own fact (is not allowed)." 12 in terms of space, and based on a comparison, the rule of law may be understood differently in different continents of the world, although -paradoxically -it may yet remain contested in each one of them. 13 some may also contest the assertion that the rule of law has a role to play 6 For law, see, e.g., ronald Dworkin, Taking Rights Seriously 103 (Cambridge, mass.: harvard university Press, 1978) and for the rule of law, see, e.g., richard h. Fallon, Jr., "The Rule of Law" as a Concept in Constitutional Discourse, 97(1) Columbia law review 1 (1997), and margaret J. radin, Reconsidering the Rule of Law, 69(4) Boston university law review 791 (1989). in the global arena. 14 however, the rule of law is also being discussed and applied in various regional contexts, such as the european union and the Belt and road initiative. 15 even the argument about the rule of law being a "universal human good" 16 can be contested.
in sum, establishing a consensus on the meaning of the rule of law is rendered more difficult by the context. in the broadest sense possible, our context is defined by our scientific understanding of space and time, 17 which are intrinsically linked in the "space-time continuum" of the three dimensions of space and one dimension of time. in other words, the understanding of the rule of law is and has been contested everywhere and at all times. more recently, however, the general culture of contestation could be said to have undergone an important shift in spatial and temporal terms. This shift may be related to an overall trend in our cognitive perception, which has been described as an acceleration of the pace of change. 18 in temporal terms, this acceleration is recognized by a sensation of the "shrinking of time, " which -in spatial terms -is paralleled by a view that we live in a shrinking world, or a "global village. " 19 The perceptions of the trends of both shrinking place and shrinking time as the result of a faster pace of change pose a serious problem in and for the law. This problem has been circumscribed by the question of "how can law preserve its integrity over time, while managing to address the newly emerging circumstances that continually arise throughout our history?" 20 attempting to answer this question is of particular relevance for what has been termed "the central tenet of the rule of law as understood around the world, " which is "legal certainty. " 21 With regard to the future, the latter is so important because the rule of law and legal certainty also contribute to, and are intrinsically related to, legal predictability. 22 Perhaps the two most important ways to provide legal certainty and predictability, even when the world is rapidly changing, are set out in what follows. The first way is for the law to adapt to changes, through legal reform and changes in the law as it is (lex lata). as a second way, it means that we must equally ponder about how the "law should be" (lex ferenda). The distinction between lex lata and lex ferenda thus connects the present with the future (while also considering the evolution in the past that led to the present status quo). at the same time, the distinction has been described as the most fundamental rule of law and achievement of legal science, 23 and has also been related to the work of international organizations and the system of sources of international law. 24 This last point marks the direct transition from the role of legal reform to the role of institutions in safeguarding the rule of law by providing legal certainty and predictability. The nexus between the law, institutions and change also includes the understanding of the rule of law as a process. 25 For the BriCs cooperation, i outlined this connection by writing that [T]he law can provide the "mortar" for an entire edifice to be built by individual bric(k)s, to use a metaphor for the challenge of creating a new global legal order for the twenty-first century. 26 as the metaphorical reference indicates, there is, arguably, one more important, more comprehensive and, at the same time, more deeply rooted factor that holds all of these "bricks" or building blocks of a future global legal order together. This factor is the cognitive level; when a cognitive shift occurs at this level, changes in context can be encompassed by the law and by the institutions as they are. moreover, a cognitive shift is perhaps the conditio sine qua non if legal change and institutional reform are to materialize. it has, in fact, been stated and shown (for the multilateral 22 See, e.g., José m. maravall & adam Przeworski, Introduction in Democracy and the Rule of Law 1, 2 (J.m. maravall & a. Przeworski (eds.), Cambridge: Cambridge university Press, 2003), citing as the most valuable effect of the rule of law is that "it enables individual autonomy" and "makes it possible for people to predict the consequences of their actions and, hence, to plan their lives"; see also lutz-Christian Wolff, Law and Flexibility -Rule of Law Limits of a Rhetorical Silver Bullet, 11 Journal Jurisprudence 553 (2011) ("legal certainty is a direct result of predictability"). 23 See, e.g., michel virally, A propos de la "lex ferenda" [On Lex Ferenda]  trading order) that "transformational change in the institutions … goes hand in hand with cognitive change. " 27 Furthermore, institutional change is correlated with cognitive evolution and tends "most likely to be the result of a dynamic process of change in collective understandings. " 28 The imminence of such a cognitive shift can, in fact, be deduced from important linguistic changes related to the rise of essentially oxymoronic concepts. after all, it has also been found that "law changes as language changes -perhaps because language changes. " 29 in cognitive and linguistic terms, shifts in both cognition and language also affect the perception of time and space, and can be summarized by a gradual move from essentially contested concepts to so-called "essentially oxymoronic concepts." essentially oxymoronic concepts include the rhetorical devices of oxymora, contradictiones in adiecto (or enantiosis) and paradoxes -that is, they are concepts that express contradictions to varying degrees. 30 Their use has been found to be on the rise in recent decades, and has lent itself to the definition of the present era as the "age of Paradox" 31 or the "Time of oxymora. " 32 it has also been mentioned that these concepts have a crucial role in designing the future, as "the prospects for global governance in the decades ahead is to discern powerful tensions, profound contradictions, and perplexing paradoxes. " 33 as a matter of fact, many new challenges in law, economics, politics and technology are being framed by way of such essentially oxymoronic concepts. in law, it is possible to cite "soft law, " 34 "pure law, " 35 and "substantive due process" 36   logic underlying reasoning (the transcendence of various legal dichotomies), but also an extension of the consideration of law from the formation of social to the crystallization of legal norms (that is, an understanding of law as a process).
in economics, recent additions include "sustainable development," "sharing economy," "inflationary deflation," or "culture industry." in politics, there are "glocalisation," "fragmegration," "soft power," and "zoon politicon." 37 in the field of technology, the following concepts have all been designated as oxymora: "artificial intelligence, " 38 "synthetic biology, " 39 "(big) raw data, " 40 and "virtual reality. " 41 it is noteworthy that a common feature of oxymora and their rhetorical counterparts is that they transcend many taxonomies and lines of distinction drawn between scientific categories of disciplines. They have also been said "to represent instances where current knowledge may be deficient" but at the same time it is said that they allow us "to test models and conceptual frameworks, and to enable true 'paradigm shifts' in certain areas of scientific inquiry. " 42 at the cognitive level, they may also "carry a silent criticism of the limitations imposed by dualistic reasoning and binary logic, " and their inherent contradictions may provide the keys for better ways tackle the complex challenges of the present. 43 in sum, they highlight and accurately describe some of the fundamental challenges related to the governance of global affairs in the future. in this global governance debate, which still remains a mystery in many ways, 44 an important question is also the kind of role that "law, " and, notably, a future "global rule of law, " is called on to play.  Evaluation 71,84 (m. engelhard (ed.), Cham: springer, 2016) ("For many contemporary authors 'artificial life' is an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms, the one belonging to nature, the other to human culture"). against the backdrop of drastic changes, this paper will address the question about the rule of law in the future of global governance by a casting a closer look at the cooperation between the BriCs countries, Brazil, russia, india, China and south africa, from its inception as an idea and then notably during the years 2009-2018. among the reasons why the BriCs cooperation exemplifies the most important questions about the rule of law in the global governance debate of the twenty-first century, one can mention the following.
First, it is noteworthy that the BriCs were initially born out of an idea formulated in 2001, which predicted that the share of Brazil, russia, india and China in the world's gDP would grow and that this would raise important questions about the impact of these countries on economic, fiscal and monetary policies. 45 second, the BriCs countries have been hailed as an important emerging driver of global change, mixed with hopes for an alternative world vision, and as having the potential "to challenge the unipolar hegemony of the united states and its Western allies, and to alter significantly the dynamics of global order. " 46 at the same time, the BriCs countries were also seen at some times to challenge the Western model, while at other times they were seen to play along. 47 They have made important contributions to the realm of international economic law. 48 They have possibly already directly or indirectly affected the global perception of what is now oxymoronically called "the global south, " or the so-called "developing world, " notably by critically challenging and undermining the "developing-developed country" dichotomy. 49 This linguistic change became most obvious when the World Bank finally abandoned the misleading terminology of "developing countries" and banned the phrase for the first time from its 2016 Development indicators report. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3482307 Third, the term "BriCs cooperation" can also be understood as a kind of "quintuple oxymoron, " or, to be more precise, an enantiosis. 51 enantiosis has been defined as a figure of speech "by which things very different or contrary are compared or placed together, and by which they mutually set off and enhance each other. " 52 The reason for comparing the BriCs to an oxymoron is that the cooperation between BriCs countries has been called into question recently because, among other reasons, the countries are too different to be able to cooperate effectively. 53 By contrast, the qualification of the BriCs as an enantiosis can also be read to mean that their diversity is not an obstacle but an incentive for closer cooperation. in other words, the principal task and probably one of the strongest arguments for BriCs cooperation is "whether or to what extent they can make a difference and how. " 54 This principal task is closely tied to the question of the role that law and the rule of law should play in their cooperation, and of the sources of law on which that role should be based. ultimately, it is also important to ask whether there is or should be such a thing as "BriCs law" -that is, to ponder the question from a de lege lata and a de lege ferenda perspective. For the reasons outlined above, this question is also closely linked to the question of whether the BriCs cooperation should or should not vest itself with permanent institutional support in the form of one or more regional organizations like the nDB. hence this paper will not only consider the relevance of the rule of law for the BriCs in an era of change, but will also consider the possibility that the rule of law could be an agent of change. 55

BRICS Cooperation: A Short Anthology and Contextual Analysis
We have agreed upon steps to promote dialogue and cooperation among our countries in an incremental, proactive, pragmatic, open and transparent way. 56 a legal analysis of the BriCs cooperation, a kind of lex lata assessment of where the BriCs stand in terms of their achievements so far, is not easy to undertake, particularly in these times of rapid change and increasing complexity. beginning the BriC stood as a mere concept, and possibly as offering economic advice on investment, with the addition of south africa in 2011 the stage was set for regional multilateral cooperation and a platform for dialogue to make concrete the objectives that had been formulated.
in the beginning, scholars and their research focused mainly on economic, investment and political issues. 57 legal science did not seem to take much notice, except for a first article focusing on the legal nature of the cooperation. 58 at around the same time, the BRICS Law Journal was created and its first volume was published. 59 similarly, the BriCs legal Forum held its first meeting and adopted the first of what are now five declarations. 60 The rising interest of legal scholars and practitioners probably received an impetus from the plan to establish a first permanent BriCs institution, the new Development Bank (nDB) or "BriCs Bank, " with the founding treaty of the nDB being signed at the sixth BriCs summit meeting held in Fortaleza, Brazil in 2014. at the same summit, a second important legal document, the Treaty for the Establishment of a BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (Cra) was signed, and this entered into force upon ratification by all BriCs states, as announced at the seventh BriCs summit in July 2015. in 2015, the third legally binding BriCs document, the Agreement between the Governments of the BRICS States on Cooperation in the Field of Culture was signed in ufa in russia.
From a legal science perspective, The BRICS-Lawyers' Guide to Global Cooperation, published in 2017, was the first comprehensive edited volume. 61 The book and its sixteen different chapters aimed to show that the diversity of the BriCs countries was not an insurmountable obstacle to legal cooperation, and that there were already steps that had been taken in several distinct areas ranging from international trade, investment, arbitration and contract law to intellectual property, outer space, culture and education.
Thus, during the first decade of BriCs cooperation, which began with the first BriCs summit of heads of state held in russia in 2009 and has continued until the most recent one, the tenth BriCs summit, which was held in 2018 in south africa, a large and continuously growing number of meetings have been held at different levels of government. 62 The BriCs cooperation has also gradually begun to include more and more private stakeholders and a focus on people-to-people exchanges. The BRICS-Lawyers' Guide to Global Cooperation, supra note 1. 62 See the overview in The BRICS-Lawyers' Guide to Global Cooperation, supra note 1, at 4-57.
Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3482307 With a decade of cooperation complete, the recent tenth anniversary of the first BriCs meeting of heads of state provided a good opportunity to try to create a more systematic collection of the principal BriCs texts that had been adopted. it was for this occasion that the recent publication, The BRICS-Lawyers' Guide to BRICS Texts and Materials, was prepared. This -after three explanatory chapters -contains a comprehensive compilation of the most important BriCs documents adopted so far. 63 The principal rationale for the publication of the book was precisely the growing scope and amount of BriCs cooperation, which is reflected in the growing set of texts that have been adopted. given that the BriCs cooperation and dialogue platform does not (yet) have the support of a permanent institution, but is instead governed by an annually rotating temporary "presidency" or "chairpersonship, " 64 there is no single and authoritative source of BriCs documents. instead, most BriCs-related documents are scattered around different websites of governmental and non-governmental organizations, or can no longer be found at all, even though a memorandum of understanding was signed in ufa (russia) in July 2015 that foresaw the creation of a "joint website to cover BriCs activities" as a free online public resource. 65 With the BriCs Portal, this website seems to have been initiated, but it appears not to be maintained regularly or to provide complete coverage of BriCs activities. 66 This may be a problem related to the absence of permanent institutional support, like a BriCs secretariat or a similar kind of organization, for the BriCs cooperation. in fact, the idea of setting up a virtual BriCs secretariat has even been circulating, but this has not yet materialized. The intrinsic connection between a website and a secretariat surfaces, for instance, in the following paragraph in the 2015 ufa Declaration: 75. We welcome the signing of the mou on the Creation of the Joint BriCs Website among our Foreign ministries. it will serve as a platform for informing people of our countries and the wider international community about BriCs principles, goals and practices. We will explore the possibility of developing the BriCs Website as a virtual secretariat. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3482307 overall, it is believed that the present difficulties in gaining access to important BriCs documents have serious repercussions. First of all, they render scholarly research on BriCs activities more difficult. This also hampers debates about these activities in times of dynamic and rapid change.
secondly, the widening scope of BriCs activities also increases the likelihood of an "unnecessary duplication" of these activities, to the detriment of greater policy coherence. in times of rapid change and increasing specialization with growing complexity, in particular, policy coherence appears as the conditio sine qua non for effective and successful cooperation within and across different policy fields. This is, therefore, the level of cooperation at which thoughts about the consolidation of the existing legal and non-legal documents acquire greater significance and relevance.

BRICS Consolidation: Lex Lata and Lex Ferenda
We reviewed the progress of the BRICS cooperation in various fields and share the view that such cooperation has been enriching and mutually beneficial and that there is a great scope for closer cooperation among the BRICS. We are focused on the consolidation of BRICS cooperation and the further development of its own agenda. 68 generally, the successful consolidation of any body of documents or materials requires a consensus on the systematic qualification of their precise nature. This is generally the task of taxonomy, the activity of scientifically naming, defining and classifying different sets of data. Taxonomy is as important in legal science as it is in any other scientific discipline. 69 in the particular context of BriCs cooperation, however, this type of taxonomy is difficult, given the vast and growing amount of documents adopted by the different BriCs authorities.
The difficulties stem, on the one hand, from the growing number of documents, in combination with the absence of centralized and permanent institutional support, like a BriCs secretariat, which may be real or virtual (a so-called "e-BriCs secretariat"). on the other hand, it is also a cause for concern that the classification of existing BriCs documents requires a clear consensus on what constitutes a "source of law" in general, or a source of so-called "BriCs law" in particular. reaching such a consensus is also, as was mentioned at the outset, closely related to the understanding of the concept of law and the rule of law. This consensus is, however, not within reach, as "law" and the "rule of law" are considered to be essentially contested concepts. it is very difficult even to delimit law within its wider context, such as the field of politics, Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3482307 especially in times when "soft law" sources are being increasingly used. Finally, even just within the legal realm, the question of sources of law is being contested and has never been exhaustively answered.
For instance, a comparative study of the sources of the laws adopted by different regional and multilateral organizations does not reveal a consensus in any of them, let alone a consensus between them. 70 in the case of international law, itself a strongly contested and probably outdated concept, 71 in particular, the exact classification of formal and material sources has been described as difficult, and has met with uncertainty. 72 again, even the need for such a classification of sources of law has been contested. 73 given the increasing levels of interaction and the resulting growth in legal complexity in general, the legal systems of most countries, or even of their sub-units, today defy a precise classification in terms of the taxonomies used for legal families, such as civil and common law, or Talmudic, islamic, or hindu, as well as chthonic, law. 74 There is a clear trend towards so-called "mixed" or "hybrid" systems. 75 Paradoxically, a parallel trend of harmonizing and unifying law globally can be observed, while nationally the law is becoming more specialized and further distinguished to the level of talking about "sui generis" legal systems. This is the same paradoxical trend that is known from the debate about regulatory diversity versus regulatory harmonization, 76  in addition to the growing diversity and resulting complexity, rapid change and, especially, new technologies also provide new challenges in the consolidation of legal sources. most importantly, this is because new actors, such as (multinational) corporations, private individuals or equally plants and animals, have entered the global arena, and are being, or are still struggling to be, recognized as so-called "subjects of international law. " 78 Further problems arise from the concretization of laws at all levels: laws often become excessively casuistic, meaning that they are designed for individual cases rather than being of universal relevance. The trend of over-regulation, or increased production by legal sources, has been observed for a long time, and is described using different concepts, such as "plethora of law, " 79 a "legal explosion, " 80 "a gigantic legislative and regulatory magma, " 81 or a "deluge of norms. " 82 little, however, has been achieved around the world in successfully containing this problem or in finding new or experimental regulatory approaches to solve the related challenges. 83 Finally, new technologies are not only taking a more prominent role in global citizens' lives but are also increasingly beginning to enter the realm of law and the legal profession. rapid progress in innovation and technology also significantly blurs existing lines of distinction, which challenges thinking in terms of dichotomies and binary logic. 84 These new trends are even beginning to challenge the fundamental dichotomy between human and non-human law. From this trend legitimate questions can also be derived about different technologies or technology in general as a potential source of law. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3482307 For instance, the internet has already been discussed as a potential source of law in the context of the harmonization pursued by the Convention on Contracts for the international sale of goods (Cisg), in the following way: With all this use of the internet directly in practice, can we deem it a source of law in itself, instead of categorising it solely as a resource of information or a source of sources? 86 as another example, the media, and particularly social media, have not only been identified as an oxymoron but have also been discussed in terms of their ability to be regarded as a source of law. 87 The blockchain technology underlying many cryptocurrencies has not only been mentioned as a potential disruptive technology for the global financial and banking system but has also been discussed as a potential source of law. 88 Blockchain technologies, however, can also be used for many other legally relevant issues, such as smart contracts, and have been said to have a capacity that allows "complex contracts to be created and automatically enforced. " 89 another term used to discuss technologies as potential legal sources is "algorithmic contracts. " 90 various other technological innovations, widely discussed under the notion of "artificial intelligence, " can only be expected to enhance the significance of technologies in the legal realm. 91 ultimately, and to cut a long story short, an understanding of the concept of law is closely tied not only to the rule of law but also to the question of "sources of law. " This issue of the utmost importance for the governance of any society is rendered more difficult by changes, and possibly by more rapid changes, in recent times. The changes in context also affect the law and our understanding thereof, as was well formulated in the following paragraph: From divine or natural law in the classics of our discipline to the general principles of law, principles of justice, jus cogens or soft law in more recent constructions of the law of nations, there has always been a variable in the equation, an external element which did not fit an objective and ordered set of sources. 92 as in earlier times, one way to bring order to disorder, to harmonize divergent understandings, and to simplify complex and divergent regulatory regimes, is codification. in this regard, the present international legal system, its serious levels of fragmentation, and its important lacunae have for a long time been calling not only for a new understanding of law, possibly beginning with the replacement of the outdated terminology of "international law" by "global law" or, better still, "glocal law, " but mostly for fundamental reform through the codification of a new body of laws aimed at governing global affairs. 93 at the regional level and in the context of the BriCs, some of these questions of great significance for the future multilateral and global legal order can be successfully addressed and answered. To this end, it is also important to look at the BriCs cooperation from the angle of the codification of "BriCs law" and a possible institutionalization of its current framework as a "cooperation and dialogue platform. "

BRICS Codification: Towards a "BRICS Law"?
It is at a certain point in time that cooperation, when having continued to widen in scope, also needs to deepen, which can be realized through a compilation and later consolidation of its texts and materials. Eventually, the consolidation of texts and materials can also lead to their codification, which may be beneficial for strengthening the rule of law. 94 During the past decade, the cooperation between the BriCs countries has produced a plethora of documents and materials. an exact and exhaustive legal qualification of these documents is not easy. it is, therefore, important to reflect constantly upon the BriCs cooperation in close harmony with the broader global governance debate. This also entails efforts to classify the documents systematically and possibly also to consolidate them, given their growing quantity. The BriCs countries are perhaps also approaching an important point at which their progress Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3482307 so far invites a question about their future objectives and the means by which they want to pursue and equally realize them.
as a brief summary, one attempt to classify and list the most pertinent BriCs documents has recently been made, and this ordered the documents as follows: i. BriCs Treaty law; ii. BriCs summit meetings by the heads of state; iii. BriCs ministerial meetings; iv. additional BriCs sources; v. The BriCs legal Forums' Declarations. 95 The first category, BriCs Treaty law is, as the title reflects, mostly legal and includes the agreements related to the nDB and the Contingent reserve arrangement (Cra), and the BriCs agreement on Culture, all three of which were signed or agreed upon in 2014. 96 The second category contains all the declarations and action plans adopted at BriCs summit meetings held at the level of heads of state, from the first in 2009 in Yekaterinburg to the 2018 BriCs summit held in Johannesburg. 97 in the category of BriCs ministerial meetings are the various documents from the meetings of BriCs ministers with competencies in foreign affairs, trade, agriculture, science, technology and innovation (sTi), health, the environment, labour and employment, as well as education. 98 These documents are not complete, in the sense that BriCs ministers have also met to discuss other areas, such as disaster management, finance, industry and migration. 99 The documents related to these meetings, however, are often wholly or partially unavailable.
For the same reasons, a more general fourth category of "additional BriCs sources" was added; these documents include a media statement about an informal BriCs meeting at the 2018 g20 meeting, several statements and memoranda of understanding (mous) by the BriCs competition authorities, other mous on the establishment of a joint website, a BriCs network university and BriCs export Credit insurance agencies, and a BriCs Cooperation agreement on innovation. 100  These five categories reflect several difficult choices, using criteria such as 1) chronology, 2) legal nature (ranging from soft to hard law), 3) the significance of the subject matter, and 4) availability. availability is one of the strongest arguments in favour of the consolidation and the later systematic presentation of the BriCs texts and materials through codification. in this context, it must be mentioned that the memorandum of understanding on the Creation of the Joint BriCs Website, adopted on 9 July 2015 in ufa (russia) foresees the following: The Parties will create a joint website to cover BriCs activities. The website will be a free online public resource. 102 in 2018, however, the so-called "BriCs information Portal" became available online, and this -in addition to information about the BriCs cooperation -has an icon for "documents. " 103 however, the documents listed are diverse and only cover the years from 2009 until 2016. The portal must therefore be deemed inadequate in terms of meeting the expectations arising from the creation of a joint website. This means that at present many documents related to BriCs are either scattered around the internet or are made available on different nationally administered websites (usually by the BriCs country holding the annual chairpersonship) or research or news agency websites. often, after some time, these documents are not even available online any longer, which was the principal motivation for the publication of The BRICS-Lawyers' Guide to BRICS Texts and Materials, to make the most pertinent BriCs documents available in a single compendium. linked to this was the motivation of engendering debate about the future development of the BriCs cooperation in close harmony with the legal debate about the future role of law (and the rule of law) in BriCs cooperation in particular and global governance in general.
as a result of the absence of such a systematic presentation of BriCs documents and of centralized institutional support, government officials from the BriCs (and other) countries, as well as students, lawyers and scholars interested in BriCs research and journalists and citizens around the world currently face serious difficulties in trying to access reliable and systematically presented sources of information about the BriCs. This point illustrates very well one of the main arguments for codification, which is to ensure the safeguarding of transparency and the rule of law and simply to inform people. Codification has been used since early history and has been described in the following words: Codification is a standard means for making the law public and available, as well as for recording the law in written texts. it is a tool known since the law's early development. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3482307 in addition, the compendium published in the book mentioned above also reveals that a large number of documents are repetitive of other documents and therefore unnecessarily duplicate a large number of phrases and concepts. an example is the BriCs pledge in relation to the following principles and objectives of global cooperation: 6. We recommit ourselves to a world of peace and stability, and support the central role of the united nations, the purposes and principles enshrined in the un Charter and respect for international law, promoting democracy and the rule of law. We reinforce our commitment to upholding multilateralism and to working together on the implementation of the 2030 sustainable Development goals as we foster a more representative, democratic, equitable, fair and just international political and economic order. 105 in this respect, a short charter, or so-called "analects of BriCs Cooperation, " 106 could summarize the fundamental principles and objectives of the cooperation of the BriCs countries, which would make it unnecessary to repeat each of these in every subsequent meeting. here, a future codification of the fundamental principles and goals of BriCs cooperation could not only reduce the quantity and length of documents produced but, most importantly, could also increase the coherence of the various BriCs initiatives and policies. This point is of the greatest significance in a world of rapid change and growing complexity. Codification can therefore be compared to "big data, " defined as "collections of datasets whose volume, velocity or variety is so large that it is difficult to store, manage, process and analyse the data using traditional databases and data processing tools. " 107 simply put, codification can serve as a way to consolidate vast amounts of data and simplify complex phenomena and processes. unlike artificial intelligence, codification relies on "human and legal intelligence" to try to address complex problems through abstract means and instruments.
additionally, and based on the understanding gained from simplification, codification, when performed well, can help to create synergies and avoid the unnecessary duplication of policies, or even policies that conflict or cancel each other out.
ultimately, endeavours to codify the existing body of BriCs documents can also help to contribute to the crystallization of the common goals of the BriCs countries, whichin turn and paradoxically -will support a greater clarity about the objectives that the BriCs cooperation should actually formulate, pursue and successfully realize. 105 See the BriCs Johannesburg Declaration, Johannesburg, south africa, 25-27 July 2018, para. 6. 106 "analects" is etymologically defined as follows: "analects, also analecta, n. pl., collected writings; literary gleanings"; see ernest Klein, A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. Vol. 1 69 (amsterdam: elsevier, 1966 if the opportunities provided by a codification of BriCs law are to materialize, however, a number of important preliminary questions also need to be answered. These questions include considerations of the role of law and of the rule of law in times of rapid change and growing complexity. Codification also requires close observation of new trends in technology, the emergence of new technologies and, particularly, the mutual impact of these technologies, all of which are extremely relevant for the debate about sources of law. it also requires a good understanding of the concept of law, as well as of its linkages with other areas, such as politics, economics and custom or culture. This last debate is well reflected in essentially oxymoronic legal concepts like "pure law" and "soft law. " 108 Both of these concepts indicate the need for a new mind-set as well as a more transdisciplinary approach to law. in other words, it means that law must be understood as a process from custom to codification, and must include its context. From a more historical perspective, codification appears as an important stage in every legal system. 109 in sum, these considerations must therefore be undertaken in a consistent and holistic manner. They should include questions about adequate institutional support in times of rapid change, through a comparative study of regional and multilateral organizations for cooperation or integration.

Conclusion
As for the future of the BRICS countries, the best way of predicting it is to create it. 110 The future matters to all of us, as it is where we will all spend the rest of our lives. 111 it particularly matters in a time of rapid, and still accelerating, change. our time is oxymoronic, as the oscillations between opposites are increasing in pace, often causing confusion, uncertainty and an apparent unpredictability. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3482307 termed "the anthropocene, " which refers to an epoch in which "human activities are significantly influencing earth's environment. " 112 The anthropocene, too, has been found to be subject to faster change, which is called the "great acceleration of the anthropocene. " This began in the second half of the twentieth century when the "human enterprise" "suddenly accelerated" in many ways, with population growth, increased oil consumption and the increasing interconnectedness of cultures. 113 in sum, a perception of an accelerated pace of change is now a common phenomenon, one that -under the notion of "social acceleration" -is noticeable in all areas of life. 114 The anthropocene also stands for serious challenges to the survival of humanity and the planet's ecosystem. a new mind-set will be required to meet these challenges successfully. This new mind-set can be described as "synaesthetic" and "oxymoronic, " relying on new sensory modes of perception and expanded forms of reasoning and logic. 115 To exemplify this need, it is important to recall that not all uncertainty that results from a faster pace of change is or must be confusing. one too easily forgets that a faster pace of change also provides greater opportunities and a higher chance of achieving the results one is aiming for.
one also forgets that contradictions are merely a limitation caused by the logic that is applied. Contradictions (and their resulting conflicts) have therefore repeatedly been qualified as problems of the mind and not problems of reality. 116 For instance, we also tend to forget that even uncertainty is not the final word, the end of a story. There can be order in disorder and utopia in dystopia, and even irrational behaviour can allow for the prediction of the (decisions humans take in the) future. 117 in other words, the mind-set can be compared to a cognitive bias that frames the way we perceive. The way we perceive, in turn, also has a measurable impact on how we act and the results we produce. 118 in this respect, the current era of rapid and increasingly rapid as well as drastic changes not only provides serious challenges but equally provides opportunities. While rapid change can mean uncertainty and Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3482307 unpredictability, it can also mean that we have the potential to achieve certain objectives more quickly.
This kind of thinking, however, requires a novel and perhaps a so-called "synaesthetic mind-set, " which is a mind-set that transcends boundaries and, notably, dichotomies and their ensuing contradictions. it is one that allows difference to be perceived as unity, continuity to be seen in change (stasis in motion), and certainty to be found in flexibility. in short, it is a mind-set capable of tackling the challenges of global governance in the twenty-first century, as aptly outlined in the following lines: it is to search for order in disorder, for coherence in contradiction, and for continuity in change. it is to confront processes that mask both growth and decay. it is to look for authorities that are obscure, boundaries that are in flux, and systems of rule that are emergent. and it is to experience hope embedded in despair. 119 These challenges well define the great problems of humanity in the twenty-first century as addressed by the global governance debate. in this global debate, the BriCs countries, as a cooperation platform, also have an important role to play.
The role played by the BriCs during the past decade has produced both visible results and other results that certainly exist but are harder to detect (since it is usually easier to detect a problem that has manifested itself than a problem that was avoided). To safeguard the positive impact of the BriCs cooperation on each of the BriCs countries individually and on the world as a whole, the debate must also consider new ideas about the role of law in the future governance of global affairs. This debate must work towards a new understanding of law, of law as a process and of law as being "oxymoronic, " in the sense of being a comprehensive process from soft to hard law, from national via regional to supranational and global law, to mention but a few stages. more concretely, it also must reflect upon the BriCs cooperation from a lex lata perspective, to the possible consolidation through codification of its vast and growing body of documents.
in this process, codification can fulfil important functions, such as tackling "big data, " facilitating research, increasing policy coherence, enhancing transparency and communicating the rule of BriCs law. it can also be expected to have positive effects on the BriCs, cementing their growing role in global governance by making their diversity the basis for the way in which they make a difference. in sum, codification can play an important role in shaping the future itself, as "the best way of predicting the future is to create it. " 120 it is in this task that law can help by playing a role in regulating the future. 121