This PhD project studies the contemporary phenomenon of Freeports - warehouses located in free trade areas where valuable items are stowed away indefinitely to avoid taxation and identification - and the economic exchanges that take place within and across their borders. The aim of the project is to understand the relationship between the market as an abstraction and a concrete phenomenon. More specifically, the project aims to understand the link between the legal regulation of markets and their material and spatial manifestations. How do actors in markets affect the conceptual framing of the law and how does the law affect the activities that take place in markets? To address these questions, a number of sub-studies of the phenomenon of Freeports are carried out. The project is thus based on a methodological approach in the social sciences that seeks insights through studies of opaque and shady activities, in order to better understand today's society. The project contributes with new knowledge about the organization of regulated markets, by highlighting the interaction between the legal and material dimensions and by paying attention to the political and economic reasons for actors to act outside the usual social structures.