Our chapter on the legitimacy impasses of transnational trade governance was finally published in the Research Handbook on the Sociology of International Law edited by Moshe Hirsch and Andrew Lang. My co-author is Christian Joerges, Professor Emeritus of Law and Society at the Hertie School of Governance. It’s great to see the chapter published in a Research Handbook with so many other fascinating contributions.
Our chapter discusses the fundamental tensions between economic globalization and democratic politics in the field of international trade. New bilateral and regional trade agreements increasingly incorporate other ‘trade-related’ policy areas and threaten to constrain state action and democratic politics. The move towards deeper and more comprehensive trade deals has greatly accentuated grievances and is of exemplary importance in the realms of transnational governance. The chapter examines the decoupling of these agreements from national and democratic control and the resulting legitimacy impasses of transnational governance, based upon the theoretical frameworks of Karl Polanyi and Dani Rodrik. Arguing that politics is not a mistake that gets in the way of markets, the authors submit their own conceptualization of transnational legitimacy. In doing so, they suggest a new type of conflicts law which does not seek to overcome socio-economic and political diversity by some substantive transnational regime, but responds to diversity with procedural safeguards, thus ensuring space for cooperative problem-solving and the search for fair compromises.
The Handbook itself explores recent developments at the intersection of international law, sociology and social theory. In doing so, it highlights anew the potential contribution of sociological methods and theories to the study of international law, and illustrates their use in the examination of contemporary problems of practical interest to international lawyers.
The diverse body of expert contributors discuss a wide range of methodologies and approaches – including those inspired by the giants of twentieth century social thought, as well as emergent strands such as computational linguistics, performance theory and economic sociology. With chapters exploring topical areas including the globalization of law, economic globalization, property rights, global governance, international legal counsel, social networks, and anthropology, the Research Handbook presents a number of paths for future research in international legal scholarship.
Fabian Bohnenberger 