<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<article>
  <title>Who Defines the Illegal? The Governance of Illegal Markets in Contested Territories: A Systematic Review</title>
  <slug>who-defines-the-illegal-the-governance-of-illegal-markets-in-contested-territories-a-systematic-review</slug>
  <parent>
    <title>Volume 7, Issue 2</title>
  </parent>
  <post_type>
    <title>Research Article</title>
  </post_type>
  <year>2026</year>
  <volume>7</volume>
  <content><![CDATA[Illegal markets encompass a wide range of business activities carried out 
outside or against legal and regulatory institutions, including smuggling, 
resource extraction, counterfeiting, and trafficking in drugs, arms, and 
human beings. This paper attempts to provide a literature review of 
governance, normalization, and persistence of illegal markets in contested territories based on the recently produced scholarly literature. To 
achieve the stated purpose, a structured review of 75 scholarly articles 
retrieved from the Web of Science is undertaken, focusing on contested 
territories such as Transnistria, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Donbas, and 
selected territories in the Horn and Great Lakes of Africa. Based on the 
structured literature review, it has been revealed how hybrid governance 
systems – which consist of de facto authorities, local elites, organized 
crime groups, and state accomplices – contribute towards legitimizing 
illegal markets in these territories. Not only have illegal market activities 
been tolerated by the local communities, but they become an integral 
part of local economies and survival techniques in the form of social 
adaptation, with their links to transnational illegal networks further 
reinforcing contested territories within global illegal market dynamics.&nbsp;&nbsp;]]></content>
  <references />
  <keywords>Illegal markets, contested territories, hybrid governance, normalization of illegality, transnational crime</keywords>
  <date>2026-10-26</date>
  <url>https://jlp.ibupress.com/articles/who-defines-the-illegal-the-governance-of-illegal-markets-in-contested-territories-a-systematic-review</url>
  <issue>2</issue>
  <pages>53-67</pages>
  <doi>10.69648/CZJY6843</doi>
  <language>en</language>
  <license>CC BY-NC-ND 4.0</license>
  <license_url>https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/</license_url>
  <pdf>https://jlp.ibupress.com/file/7Ejkk9wp6hx/jlp-7-2-04-hajiyeva.pdf</pdf>
  <authors>
    <author>
      <first_name>Nargiz</first_name>
      <last_name>Hajiyeva</last_name>
      <affiliation>Azerbaijan State University of Economics</affiliation>
      <country>Azerbaijan</country>
      <ror>https://ror.org/000y2g343</ror>
    </author>
    <author>
      <first_name>Mahmud</first_name>
      <last_name>Nuriyev</last_name>
      <affiliation>National Defense University</affiliation>
      <country>Azerbaijan</country>
      <orcid>https://orcid.org/0009-0000-9871-5458</orcid>
      <ror>https://ror.org/05emvfn26</ror>
    </author>
  </authors>
  <journal>
    <title>Journal of Law And Politics</title>
    <issn>2671-342X</issn>
    <eissn>2671-3438</eissn>
    <publisher>Balkan University Press</publisher>
    <url>https://jlp.ibupress.com</url>
  </journal>
</article>