More than a decade after the emergence of public law approaches to international institutions, such as Global Administrative Law, Global Constitutionalism, or International Public Authority, the international order has changed dramatically. The Trump administration and Brexit epitomize a growing trend against global governance. What had once been taken for granted – the proliferation of institutional...
The authoritarian/nationalist pushback as a bottom-up challenge to regional integration organizations: an analysis of the EU and Mercosur
Nationalist and authoritarian contestation of global governance is both a recent trend and an old challenge to international institutions. Relying on case studies of the EU and Mercosur (Brexit, Poland, Venezuela), this research will focus on the reversal to authoritarianism and nationalism in member States of regional integration organizations. This research rests on the hypothesis...
The Contribution of the International Economic Constitution to Authoritarian Liberalism
This paper explores the responsibility of the current international economic constitution for the authoritarian liberalist backlash against free markets and the emergence of nationalist, protectionist policies. While the authoritarian liberalist claim of unfair trade practices collapses at closer scrutiny, the structure of the international economic constitution makes societies vulnerable to such claims. Drawing on Polanyi‘s...
The One Belt and One Road (OBOR) Initiative: Reconceptualisation of State Capitalism vis-à-vis Remapping of Global Governance
Globalisation has led to asymmetric engagement and opportunities. While the new power is seeking to integrate institution building into the global policy architecture, the resulting inequity under the existing institutions trigger increased nationalist pushback. With its ample surplus financial capacity, China has been building up its soft power through the “One Belt and One Road“...
The Resilience of Transnational Regulatory Networks in the Age of Authoritarian Pushback
At the end of the 90s, Anne Marie Slaughter claimed transnational regulatory networks (TRNs) were an extremely promising form of global governance because of their flexibility, speed, and informality. This optimistic attitude changed in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. At the beginning of this decade, David Zaring argued that the crisis showed the...
Transforming an Informal Political Grouping into a Legalized Intergovernmental Organization: Overcoming Legal, Capacity, and Cognitive Dissonances in Building a Rules-based ASEAN
While there are contemporary signs of ‘authoritarian pushback‘ eroding global governance in the ‘liberal‘ world, the converse seems to be happening in ‘soft authoritarian‘ Southeast Asia. Since the ASEAN Charter (2007), ASEAN members have strived to reform their intergovernmental grouping into a formal rules- and institutions-based regional organization that stands credibly in the international legal...