BOOK REVIEW: Private International Law: Contemporary Challenges and Continuing Relevance

Modern education and professional training in most fields have followed the deep but narrow model, where deep expertise is acquired in a narrow field (e.g. specific area of law), with very few insights incorporated form other disciplines. A common alternative to deep but narrow is wide but shallow, where experts acquire superficial knowledge from across different disciplines, but without interdisciplinary integration needed to extract true value from these insights. In this paper we argue that recent advances in understanding the human mind, combined with unprecedented changes in accessibility of information enabled by AI, provide an opportunity for shifting to the deep and wide model of expertise acquisition. Using the legal profession as an example, we discuss how the shift towards deep and wide model can lead to improvements in decision making and consequent benefits to individuals and societies.

Corruption in Albania is examined through an interdisciplinary lens combining psychological theories and socio-legal analysis to reveal how cognitive biases, social norms, and institutional weaknesses interact to sustain corrupt practices. The study highlights how moral disengagement, anchoring bias, and social normalization embed unethical conduct within political and bureaucratic systems, undermining legal compliance and eroding public trust. Historical and cultural legacies, including patronage networks and kinship obligations, shape perceptions that justify misconduct as loyalty or necessity, complicating reform efforts. Structural anti-corruption measures often fall short without addressing underlying psychological mechanisms that rationalize and perpetuate corruption. Integrating behavioral interventions, such as moral identity reinforcement, peer group realignment, and transparency-enhancing strategies, with legal reforms is proposed to disrupt entrenched patterns. Emphasis is placed on consistent enforcement, visible accountability, and community-level norm recalibration to restore institutional credibility and support democratic integrity. This approach underscores the importance of aligning internalized ethical values with formal governance structures to achieve sustainable reductions in corruption and strengthen rule of law in transitional democracies.

This Special Issue comprises the proceedings from the Roundtable Unconference that took place at Hult International Business School, London, on 3 December 2025. The event brought together researchers and practitioners with expertise in psychology and law who shared their insights into the importance of psychology-law fusion in addressing pressing societal challenges.

Keywords:

psychology and law; judges; lawyers; psychologists; interdisciplinary evaluation; psychology and justice; knowledge fusion