Abstract This chapter suggests how transnational legal theory provides a relevant analytical frame to capture the norms, actors and processes of international arbitration. The chapter first examines the long-standing academic debates over lex mercatoria before turning to the dominant sociolegal analysis of international arbitration. Both examples illustrate the extent to which the analytical frames furnished by legal scholars are grounded in representations that ought to be transcended for a better understanding of the global world. The notion of transnational law provides a useful analytical frame to reconsider these debates under a new light and to open new avenues for future research.