In recent years the concepts of "transnational law" and "governance" have been explored by both scholars and practitioners with the terms taking on new meaning and significance, particularly in light of the ongoing economic crisis and a corresponding critical reappraisal of global institutional structures and governance. Transnational law covers a broad theoretical definition which includes studies emerging from disciplines such as international law, comparative law, international economic law and administrative law undertaken by legal scholars but also features extensive research undertaken by scholars from other disciplines, including but not limited to, political sciences, international relations, public administration, sociology, history, philosophy and geography. Recent work has offered up critical evaluations of the current system of governance and transnational rules as being often implemented by Western countries through categories which no longer accurately represent Western economies and are even less relevant to non-Western systems which are becoming increasingly important in the global economy. Governance in particular is now seen as important when we refer to the general stability of the markets, to good faith and other key principles which are fundamental to the notion of a fair market which is responsive to the needs of governments and citizens as well as businesses. This multidisciplinary series aims to provide a home for research exploring these issues. It features cutting-edge works which critically analyse the relationship between governance, institutions and law from a variety of disciplinary perspectives.
This book provides a new viewpoint and approach of simultaneously regulating seemingly non-connected fields in order to provide a fertile ground for a truly organic change towards sustainable outcomes.
Tackling the debate surrounding the crisis of multilateralism and the related transformation of the underlying international legal order, The Crisis of Multilateral Legal Order analyzes selected aspects of the current crisis from the perspective of public international law to identify the nature of the crisis, its dynamics, and implications.
The past decade have been anni horribiles for in International Economic Law in general and in particular for the World Trade Organization, since its inception in 1995 the guarantor of the world multilateral trade system. The increasing trade tensions, a high level of US security tariffs on steel and aluminium, the US boycott of the WTO Appellate Body, the US-China "trade war" and the reasons underlining it, only aggravated a disastrous world-wide economic situation at a time of tremendous global health and societal emergency, due to the persistent devastating spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The book critically discusses the most salient past US Administration’s unilateralist and protectionist practices. At the same time investigating the new Biden Administration’s trade approaches in order to assess whether the precedent trade trajectory is likely to continue, or there is hope of reviving the US commitment to the rule-based multilateral trading system. The book’s goal consists in distilling from the current legal events the reasoning that might help the next generations in obtaining what the world needs most. These are a conscious and voluntary return to multilateralism, the search of new forms of effective global cooperation, better trade policies, a more equitable globalization, sound legal arguments and solid economic reasons to combat the raising nationalisms. If enacted, these elements hopefully would contribute to defeat new risks of political conflicts and long-lasting "trade wars". The book will be helpful to students and scholars in international and trade law, political science, and also professionals working in international and EU institutions.
Exploring the relationship and interaction between economic interests and normative non-trade values, this book argues that the emergence and development of non-trade values is based on a complex dialectic interaction between selfish economic interests and normative values, and examines how their structural interdependence has given rise to a remarkable evolution in international trade. Conceiving this relationship as an intricate dialectic one that is neither purely value-driven, nor purely economic-interest-driven, it addresses the emergence, function and role of non-trade values in international trade with a synthetizing approach and explores the results of their interaction in international economic intercourse. Approaching the non-trade issues of trade in a holistic manner, the book demonstrates that trade can operate smoothly only if it is framed by an architecture of normative value standards and international trade liberalization has reached the level where further development calls for cooperation also in fields that, at first glance, may appear to be non-trade in nature.
Technocratic law and governance is under fire. Not only populist movements have challenged experts. NGOs, public intellectuals and some academics have also criticized the too close relation between experts and power. While the amount of power gained by experts may be contested, it is unlikely and arguably undesirable that experts will cease to play an influential role in contemporary regulatory regimes. This book focuses on whether and how experts involved in policymaking can and should be held accountable. The book, divided into four parts, combines theoretical analysis with a wide variety of case studies expounding the challenges of holding experts accountable in a multilevel setting. Part I offers new perspectives on accountability of experts, including a critical comparison between accountability and a virtue-ethical framework for experts, a reconceptualization of accountability through the rule of law prism and a discussion of different ways to operationalize expert accountability. Parts I–IV, organized around in-depth case studies, shed light on the accountability of experts in three high-profile areas for technocratic governance in a European and global context: economic and financial governance, environmental/health and safety governance, and the governance of digitization and data protection. By offering fresh insights into the manifold aspects of technocratic decision making and suggesting new avenues for rethinking expert accountability within multilevel governance, this book will be of great value not only to students and scholars in international and EU law, political science, public administration, science and technology studies but also to professionals working within EU institutions and international organizations.
The last twenty years have witnessed an astonishing transformation: the fight against corruption has grown from a handful of local undertakings into a truly global effort. Law occupies a central role in that effort and this timely book assesses the challenges faced in using law as it too morphs from a handful of local rules into a global regime. The book presents the perspectives of a global array of scholars, of policy makers, and of practitioners. Topics range from critical theoretical understandings of the global regime as a whole, to regional and local experiences in implementing and influencing the regime, including specific legal techniques such as deferred prosecution agreements, addressing corruption issues in dispute resolution, whistleblower protection, civil and administrative prosecutions, as well as blocking statutes. The book also includes discussions of the future shape of the global regime, the emergence of transnational compliance standards, and discussions by leaders of international organizations that take a leading role in the transnationalization of anti-corruption law. The Transnationalization of Anti-Corruption Law deals with the most salient aspects of the global anti-corruption regime. It is written by people who contribute to the structure of the regime, who practice within the regime, and who study the regime. It is written for anyone interested in corruption or corruption control in general, anyone with a general interest in jurisprudence or in international law, and especially anyone who is interested in critical thinking and analysis of how law can control corruption in a global context.
Investigating the unique EU-CARICOM legal relationship, this book explores the major theme of globalisation, which shapes inter-regional organisations individually and determines their relationship to one another. It evaluates how EU-CARICOM relations have fostered trade, security and other development measures, reflecting on the past, future and present of the Caribbean states that are active in the EU-CARICOM framework. Providing case studies on key issues such as immigration, tax and energy, it examines the impact that the EU-CARICOM has on the slave trade and the deportation of millions of people. Such bitter experiences still indirectly shape culture, hopes and the economic framework of possibilities today, therefore the focus of the volume is on the issues which the constant stream of globalisation creates. The book assesses many potential impacts that the agenda of the EU and Brexit pending will have upon the EU-CARICOM relationship, given the potential for these to create instability. Overall, it highlights how the EU and CARICOM are representations for multilateralism and serve as models that provide the basis for many successful initiatives and agreements. In all new agreements and negotiations, the will to accept the sustainable development goals and thus to make inequality, climate change and other goals of the SDGs the basis of an order that puts people at the centre, are evaluated, and the global agenda 2030 and its impact on EU-CARICOM.
Transnational business activities are important drivers of growth for developing and least developed countries. However, they can also negatively impact the enjoyment of human rights. In some cases, multinational enterprises (MNEs) have even been accused of grave human rights abuses in the territory of the states where their subsidiaries operate. Since the parent companies of many MNEs are incorporated under the law of European states, those countries’ domestic law and the European legal framework play a crucial role in establishing how their activities should be conducted—also throughout their supply chains—and which remedies will be available when corporate human rights violations occur. In recent years, the European Union, the Council of Europe and the European states have been adopting policies and legislation to ensure respect for human rights by businesses and have developed a body of related case law. These legal instruments can be considered the European responses to the challenges posed at international-law level, and they constitute the focus of research of this book. Through its collected chapters—written by scholars and practitioners under the direction of the Editor, Angelica Bonfanti—Business and Human Rights in Europe: International Law Challenges identifies the European solutions to the business and human rights international legal issues, provides an overall assessment of their effectiveness, and examines their potential evolution.
Since the Lisbon Treaty there has been a huge growth in EU administrative law with many administrative agencies, organs and bodies being set up to deal with various issues. This book sets out the various legal remedies available through the administrative appeals process which can be used against the actions of these legal entities. The book considers the role of administrative appeals in EU law and their place within the EU institutional framework, covering the changes to administrative appeals introduced by the Lisbon Treaty. The different categories of administrative appeals and their main features are analysed in detail in order to provide the reader with a guide to the form and substance of the administrative appeals in the EU. The issue of access to justice is also addressed looking at judicial review of decisions following an administrative appeal and how effective the system is at protecting the rights of individuals. The book offers a valuable guide to the processes and procedures of administrative appeals in the EU for scholars, researchers and practitioners.
In the past decade, companies have become increasingly aware of their corporate, social and human responsibilities. However, with the exception of a few isolated cases, access to justice has barely improved, particularly for or violations of socio-economic rights. In most cases of human rights violations by corporations the victims remain without the right to effective judicial protection. International law does not currently allow for the possibility of enforcing corporate responsibility for human rights, leaving victims to attempt to seek recourse in often inefficient and reluctant domestic courts. This book asks how should transnational and other corporations most effectively respect and protect human rights without compromising their primary business objectives? The book identifies and analyses the theoretical foundations and the existing scope and nature of corporate accountability arising from economic and social rights at the international and national levels. Through careful analysis Jernej Letnar Cernic exposes the stark reality of the need for greater clarity in the socio-economic obligations and accountability of corporations. The book goes on to put forward a normative framework for corporate accountability for socio-economic rights in national legal orders building on existing mechanisms.
The rapid industrialization of societies has resulted in radical changes to the Earth’s biosphere and its local ecosystems. Climate scientists have recorded and forecasted worrying global temperature rises going back to the early twentieth century, while biologists and palaeontologists have suggested that the next mass extinction is on its way if the current rate of species loss continues. To avert further ecological damage, excessive natural resource use and environmental deterioration are challenges that humanity must deal with now. The human species has had such a significant impact on the natural environment that the present geological epoch can be referred to as the ‘Anthropocene’, the age of humans. The blame and responsibility for the prevailing unsustainability, however, cannot be assigned equally to all humans. To analyse the root problems and consequences of unsustainable development, as well as to outline rigorous solutions for the contemporary age, this transdisciplinary book brings together natural and social sciences under the rubric of the Anthropocene. The book identifies the central preconditions for social organization and governance to enable the peaceful coexistence of humans and the non-human world. The contributors investigate the burning questions of sustainability from a number of different perspectives including geosciences, economics, law, organizational studies, political theory and philosophy. The book is a state-of-the-art review of the Anthropocene debate and provides crucial signposts for how human activities can, and should, be changed.
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This book presents a critique of dominant governance theories grounded in an understanding of existence as a static, discrete, mechanistic process, while also identifying the failures of theories that assume dynamic alternatives of either a radically collectivist or individualist nature. Relationships between ontology and governance practices are established, drawing upon a wide range of social, political, and administrative theory. Employing the ideal-type method and dialectical analysis to establish meanings, the authors develop a typology of four dominant approaches to governance. The authors then provide a systematic analysis of each governance approach, thoroughly unpacking and critiquing each one and exploring the relationships and movements among them that engender reform and revolution as well as retrenchment and obfuscation of power dynamics. After demonstrating that each governance approach has fatal flaws within a diverse global context, the authors propose an alternative they call Integrative Governance. As a synthesis of the ideal-types, Integrative Governance is neither individualist nor collectivist, while still maintaining the dynamic character required to accommodate responsiveness to cultural contexts.
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