Ruling the World?: Constitutionalism, International Law, and Global Governance

by Jeffrey L. Dunoff, Joel P. Trachtman

Overview

Ruling the World?: Constitutionalism, International Law, and Global Governance provides an interdisciplinary analysis of the major developments and central questions in debates over international constitutionalism at the UN, EU, WTO, and other sites of global governance. The essays in this volume explore controversial empirical and structural questions, doctrinal and normative issues, and questions of institutional design and positive political theory. Ruling the World? grows out of a three-year research project that brought twelve leading scholars together to create a comprehensive and integrated framework for understanding global constitutionalization. Ruling the World? is the first volume to explore in a cross-cutting way constitutional discourse across international regimes, constitutional pluralism, and relations among transnational and domestic constitutions. The volume examines the core assumptions, basic analytic tools, and key challenges in contemporary debates over international constitutionalization.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521514392
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/27/2009
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Jeffrey L. Dunoff is Nomura Visiting Professor of International Financial Systems at Harvard Law School and Professor of Law and Director, Institute for International Law and Public Policy at Temple University Beasley School of Law. During 2007–8, he served as a Senior Visiting Research Scholar in the LAPA program at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and, in 2005, as a Visiting Fellow at the Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law at Cambridge University. Dunoff is coauthor (with Steven Ratner and David Wippman) of a leading textbook, International Law: Actors, Norms, Process, and his writings have appeared in journals such as the American Journal of International Law, the European Journal of International Law, and the Journal of International Economic Law.

Joel P. Trachtman is Professor of International Law at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. From 1998 to 2001, he was Academic Dean of the Fletcher School, and, during 2000 and 2001, he served as Dean ad interim. In 2002, he was Manley O. Hudson Visiting Professor of Law, and in 2004 he was Nomura Visiting Professor of International Financial Systems, at Harvard Law School. The author of more than seventy scholarly publications, Professor Trachtman is a member of the boards of the American Journal of International Law, the European Journal of International Law, the Journal of International Economic Law, and the Singapore Yearbook of International Law.

Table of Contents

Part I. What Is Constitutionalism Beyond the State?: 1. A functional approach to global constitutionalism Jeffrey L. Dunoff and Joel P. Trachtman; 2. The mystery of global governance David Kennedy; 3. The international legal system as a constitution Andreas Paulus; Part II. The Constitutional Dimensions of Specific International Regimes: 4. The UN charter - a global constitution? Michael Doyle; 5. Rediscovering a forgotten constitution: notes on the place of the UN charter in the international legal order Bardo Fassbender; 6. Reframing EU constitutionalism Neil Walker; 7. The politics of international constitutions: the curious case of the WTO Jeffrey L. Dunoff; 8. Constitutional economics of the WTO Joel P. Trachtman; Part III. Cross Cutting Issues: 9. Human rights and international constitutionalism Stephen Gardbaum; 10. The cosmopolitan turn in constitutionalism: on the relationship between national constitutional law and constitutionalism beyond the state Mattias Kumm; 11. Constitutional heterarchy: the centrality of conflict in the United States and Europe Daniel Halberstam; 12. Courts and pluralism: essay on a theory of judicial adjudication in the context of legal and constitutional pluralism Miguel Poiares Maduro; 13. Whose constitution(s)? International law, constitutionalism and democracy Samantha Besson.

Editorial Reviews

"How close are we to having an International Constitution to Rule the World? Penetrating essays in this distinguished, necessary volume offer the fullest answer we have thus far, examining through interdisciplinary lenses how constitutional discourse is reshaping international law, emerging regimes of global governance, and the growing intersection between domestic and transnational constitutions."
—Harold Hongju Koh, Legal Adviser-Designate, United States Department of State; Dean and Gerard C. & Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law, Yale Law School


“Does the international system have a “constitution”? What are the implications if it does? These and related questions are central to important contemporary discussions in international relations and international law, and the essays here provocatively explore them from diverse disciplinary and national perspectives. Everyone who seeks to understand developments in the international order will benefit from reflecting on the authors’ contributions.”
—Mark Tushnet, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law, Harvard Law School


“Even for a skeptic towards the idea of couching current developments in international legal governance in terms of "constitutionalization", this book is a remarkable achievement. Its editors have assembled a set of studies which treat this paradigm and its (sometimes all too ready) reception in the literature in a fair, balanced and comprehensive way. Thus, I consider the study of Ruling the World? to be the best way to learn everything necessary about the pros and cons of an influential school of thought."
—Bruno Simma, Judge at the International Court of Justice


“This fascinating volume poses the question, Is it useful to think of the sprawling system of global governance as a sort of "constitution" for the world? . . . [T]reaty-based organizations, the authors argue, are more than just cooperative agreements among members; they are also perpetual institutions whose ongoing authority does not require continuing consent from member states. Skeptics will question the extent to which there is coherence and force in today's global rights and laws. But the volume succeeds in showcasing the evolving connections among rights, democracy, legitimacy, and international cooperation.”
—Foreign Affairs, G. John Ikenberry, Albert G. Milbank Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University


"...an excellent and timely contribution to the scholarship on international law and, in particular, the notion of evolving globalism in judicial institutions and processes, backed up by internationally and nationally mandated instruments. The editors indicate that this is the first of a series of volumes to explore constitutionalism and fragmentation in international law. This is a welcome opener."
—H-REVIEW Digest


"Ruling the World? Constitutionalism, International Law, and Global Governance will rightly take its place among the most important contributions to the early twenty-first century literature on constitutionalism at the global level"
-Andrew Lang,London School of Economics

From the Publisher