From global city to Olympic city The transnational legal journey of London 2012

The Olympic Games incarnate the global. They bring together, physically and virtually, athletes and fans from all around the world. It’s hard to think of any other social gathering (besides the FIFA World Cup) that exemplifies better a universal event experienced (in very different ways) by humanity in its entirety. And yet, the Games remain as well a profoundly local affair proceeding on a narrow portion of a city’s territory. How does the intimate connection between global and local translate legally in the context of the Olympic Games? What are the legal mechanisms that define the development of the Olympic city? How do they affect the agency of local citizens and their democratic sovereignty? This chapter aims to identify, describe and assess the transnational legal process that frames the transformation that the host city undergoes in order to host the Games and will situate it in the broader research agenda on cities and international law harboured by this handbook.