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Toward An Identity Theory Of International Organizations, Sungjoon Cho

Sungjoon Cho

Toward an Identity Theory of International Organizations

Abstract

Today, we live in an era of international organizations (IOs). With more than two hundred IOs existing, they touch our everyday lives, ranging from air travel to flu shots. Such paramount significance notwithstanding, conventional international relations (IR) theories, such as realism, have failed to take IOs seriously. Conventional IR scholars view an IO as nothing but passive machinery created and controlled by states for their functional need. Under this position, while an IO may facilitate inter-state cooperation and reduce transaction costs, it would never have a life of its own. Conventional IR …

Legitimacy And Law-Making Alliances, Claire R. Kelly

Claire R. Kelly

Abstract Law-making institutions seek legitimacy to secure compliance with the norms that they generate. In the international setting this quest is made more difficult by the lack of both an identifiable public that international organizations represent and competing normative prescriptions for international law-making. In light of these obstacles, various legitimacy theories attempt to evaluate the law-generating efforts of international organizations. These theories consider whether the organizations are representative, inclusive, procedurally fair, or effective. Law-making organizations that satisfy the legitimacy criteria articulated in these theories can claim legitimacy and expect greater compliance as a result.

Although these theories are helpful, a …

Monitoring Compliance With Unratified Treaties: The Ilo Experience, Laurence R. Helfer

Law and Contemporary Problems

Helfer challenges the conventional wisdom that the delegation of authority to the International Labor Organization (ILO) involves only modest sovereignty costs. Heifer explains that the ILO has increasingly exercised the authority to monitor compliance with unratified labor treaties and recommendations, and that the exercise of this authority has significant effects. He further notes that this type of monitoring authority is not confined to the ILO, but in fact exists in several other international institutions and issue areas. The case of the ILO therefore suggests that some important delegations arise and thrive outside of the formal channels of authority. This makes …

Delegation Success And Policy Failure: Collective Delegation And The Search For Iraqi Weapons Of Mass Destruction, Michael J. Tierney

Law and Contemporary Problems

Tierney argues that international delegation can have important consequences, even for powerful states. In particular, he contends that the US delegation of inspection authority to United Nations weapons inspectors and to the International Atomic Energy Association after the Gulf War of 1990-91 entailed significant sovereignty costs by affecting the timing and costliness of the subsequent 2003 US invasion of Iraq. Among other things, he notes that the inspectors' independent behavior made it much more difficult for the US to assemble the type of multilateral coalition that would share the costs as it had in the earlier Gulf War. Tierney also …

Two Crises Of Confidence: Securing Non-Proliferation And The Rule Of Law Through Security Council Resolutions, Vik Kanwar

Vik Kanwar

This timely article describes the powers of the United Nations Security Council as they have developed in the field of non-proliferation, and demonstrated in recent resolutions, and goes on to propose a normative framework based on the model of reciprocal “confidence-building” measures to ensure the legality and legitimacy of these resolutions.

Recent proliferation crises (concerning Iran, North Korea, and non-state proliferation networks) have led the Council draw upon various sources-- express and implied powers under the UN Charter, powers granted by specific treaties, and an unusual degree of international consensus-- to expand its powers. This paper attempts to transcend false …

Institutional Alliances And Derivative Legitimacy, Claire R. Kelly

Michigan Journal of International Law

Part I of this Article describes global lawmaking and the legitimacy challenge. It provides a typology of IOs that develop norms. It explains that legitimacy is a subjective belief, but it provides objective paradigms for assessing legitimacy claims. It demonstrates how pursuing legitimacy according to one set of criteria can sacrifice legitimacy claims under another. It also examines the competition among IOs, the push for democratic norms, and the resulting need for stronger legitimacy claims. Part II explains linkage and accommodation and gives specific examples of where these phenomena work to garner more legitimacy for specific organizations and the soft …

The Globalization Of Health And Safety Standards: Delegation Of Regulatory Authority In The Sps Agreement Of The 1994 Agreement Establishing The World Trade Organization, Tim Buthe

Law and Contemporary Problems

Buthe examines why states delegated regulatory authority in the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures, an integral part of the founding treaty of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Buthe argues that, to explain this case of international delegation, principal-agent theory must be complemented by an analysis of cost-benefit calculations of the relevant domestic interest groups. Given these domestic interests, governments decided to institutionalize international cooperation on SPS measures outside of the WTO because they believed that such delegation would minimize the political costs of the loss of policymaking autonomy. Buthe notes, however, that in retrospect it …

Negotiate Or Litigate? Effects Of Wto Judicial Delegation On U.S. Trade Politics, Judith L. Goldstein, Richard H. Steinberg

Law and Contemporary Problems

Goldstein and Steinberg argue that the World Trade Organization Appellate Body has been able to use its authority to engage in judicial lawmaking to reduce trade barriers in ways that would not otherwise have been possible through negotiation. This lawmaking authority was not the result of a purposeful delegation; rather, it was an unintended byproduct of the creation of an underspecified set of rules and procedures. There is nevertheless a high rate of compliance with Appellate Body decisions because decentralized enforcement can induce domestic importers to lobby for trade liberalization. In the US, this judicial lawmaking may also allow the …