Constitutionalism, multilevel trade governance and social regulation

This is a book about the ever more complex legal networks of transnational economic governance structures and their legitimacy problems. The book takes up the challenge of the editors' earlier pioneering works which have called for more cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary analysis by scholars of international law, European and international economic law, private international law, international relations theory, and social philosophy to examine the interdependence of multilevel governance in transnational economic, social, environmental, and legal relations. Two complementary strands of theorizing are expounded. One argues that globalization and the universal recognition of human rights are transforming the intergovernmental 'society of states' into a cosmopolitan community of citizens which requires more effective constitutional safeguards for protecting human rights and consumer welfare in the national and international governance and legal regulation of international trade. The second emphasizes the dependence of the functioning of international markets and liberal trade on governance arrangements which respond credibly to safety and environmental concerns of consumers, traders, politicians, and non-governmental actors. Inquiries into the generation of international standards and empirical analysis of legalization practices form part of this agenda. The perspectives and conclusions of the more than 20 contributors from Europe and North America cannot be uniform. But they converge in their search for a constitutional architecture which limits, empowers, and legitimizes multilevel trade governance, as well as in their common premise that respect for human rights, private and democratic self-government, and social justice require more transparent, participatory, and deliberative forms of transnational 'cosmopolitan democracy'.Multilevel trade governance in the WTO requires multilevel constitutionalism / Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann. -- Democratic legitimacy of transnational trade governance : a view from political theory / Patricia Nanz. -- Dispute settlement under GATT and WTO : an empirical enquiry into a regime change / Achim Helmedach and Bernhard Zangl. -- The appellate body's "response" to the tensions and interdependencies between transnational trade governance and social regulation / Christiane Gerstetter. -- Why co-operate? : civil society participation at the WTO / Jens Steffek and Claudia Kissling. -- Participatory transnational governance / Rainer Nickel. -- Non-traditional patterns of global regulation : is the WTO "missing the boat"? / Joost Pauwelyn. -- Conflicts and comity in transnational governance : private international law as mechanism and metaphor for transnational social regulation through plural legal regimes / Robert Wai. -- Fixing the codex? : global food-safety governance under review / Thorsten Hüller and Matthias Leonhard Maier. -- Precautionary principle in support of practical reason : an argument against formalistic interpretations of the precautionary principle / Alexia Herwig. -- Beyond the science/democracy dichotomy : the World Trade Organization sanitary and phytosanitary agreement and administrative constitutionalism / Elizabeth Fischer. -- Administrative globalism and curbing the excess of state / Damian Chalmers. -- New device for creating international legal normativity : the WTO technical barriers to trade agreement and "international standards" / Robert Howe. -- Empire's drains : sources of legal recognition of private standardisation under the TBT agreement / Harm Schepel. -- Global environmental governance and the WTO : emerging rules through evolving practice : the CBD-Bonn guidelines / Christine Godt. -- Environmental policies and the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment : a record of failure? / Ulrike Ehling. -- Facing the global hydra : ecological transformation at the global financial frontier : the ambitious case of the global reporting initiative / Oren Perez. -- Constitutionalism in postnational constellations : contrasting social regulation in the EU and in the WTO / Christian Joerge