The Exercise of International Public Authority

“The Exercise of International Public Authority” provides the focus for a number of projects analyzing the public authority exercised by international institutions. Our interest is carried by the observation that forms of international or global governance condition, supervene or substitute domestic processes and thus impact the possibilities of individual and collective self-determination. The projects aim at going beyond functionalist explanations of such authority as well as their justification by state consent. We understand international institutions as independent actors enjoying at times considerable discretion and political significance. This prompts the question of whether and how such authority may be framed by public law. If public law takes the role of constituting and constraining the exercises of public authority, we contend, it may be explored how international public law can be conceived and developed so as to respond to the challenges of an increasingly internationalized exercise of public authority. The research project on the exercise of international public authority shares this interest with similar projects such as those that come under the umbrella of Global Administrative Law or Global Constitutionalism.

Our Main Projects

Thus far, the project on the exercise of public authority has comprised three parts, each spanning over several years and giving rise to one or several key publications:

Part 1: The Exercise of Public Authority by International Institutions (2006-2009)

Part 2: International Judicial Institutions as Law Makers (2009-2012)

Part 3: The ongoing third stage involves one lead publication carving out the key concepts and ramifications of the IPA approach in greater detail ("IPA 3"), as well as further projects examining specific issue areas or governance structures ("IPA 3 Plus").

Since 2013, the project has been affiliated with the Cluster of Excellence "Formation of Normative Orders" at Goethe University Frankfurt through a cluster project on the exercise of public authority on the international, supranational and domestic levels, carried out at the Max Planck Institute.

The Project is supported by a network of researchers from the Max Planck Institute and our network partners at Universiteit van Amsterdam, Humboldt University Berlin, Gießen University and Tübingen University.

A previous project of the MPI covered a related aspect, namely the administration of territories by international institutions. It has been published in volume 9 (2005) of the Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law¹⁰.

News

+++ JUST APPEARED +++

Matthias Goldmann, Internationale öffentliche Gewalt, Springer 2015. Check out the e-book version at http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-662-46154-9.

New Lead Publication on International Courts and Their Exercise of Public Authority:

+++ English Version Now Available! +++

Armin von Bogdandy and Ingo Venzke: In Whose Name? A Public Law Theory of International Adjudication. OUP 2014, 304 p.

German Version: Armin von Bogdandy and Ingo Venzke: In wessen Namen? Internationale Gerichte in Zeiten globalen Regierens. Frankfurt a.M., Suhrkamp 2014, 383 p.

Internationale Gerichte sind zu multifunktionalen Akteuren des globalen Regierens erstarkt. Das überlieferte Verständnis der internationalen Gerichtsbarkeit, welches diese allein als Instrument der Streitbeilegung in den Händen der Staaten ansieht, ist dieser Entwicklung gegenüber allerdings blind. Armin von Bogdandy und Ingo Venzke legen einen neuen Ansatz vor, der den Funktionen internationaler Rechtsprechung jenseits der Streitbeilegung nachspürt, die internationale Spruchpraxis als Ausübung öffentlicher Gewalt konzipiert und ihre demokratische Rechtfertigung prüft. Dadurch erschließen sie die legitimatorische Problematik und eröffnen zugleich bislang ungesehene Möglichkeiten der Weiterentwicklung internationaler Gerichtsbarkeit.

Rezension von Elisabeth von Tadden in der "Zeit".

Events

11.02.2015 | 15:00 | X-House, R 1.110

Accountability of International Organizations: Prof. Tana Johnson (Duke University, Political Science Department and Sanford School of Public Policy) will present her book "Organizational Progeny: Why Governments are Losing Control over the Proliferating Structures of Global Governance". In cooperation with Team Anne Peters.

2-3 September 2015 | Cluster-Building Frankfurt | EG

"Democracy and the Financial Order: Legal Perspectives". Workshop in Cooperation with the German Law Journal. Keynote: Prof. Henrik Enderlein (Hertie School of Governance, Berlin)

Event Archive

Framework Papers

Armin von Bogdandy, Philipp Dann and Matthias Goldmann, "Developing the Publicness of Public International Law: Towards a Legal Framework for Global Governance Activities", 9 German Law Journal (2008) 1375-1400, available at SSRN and below.

Armin von Bogdandy and Ingo Venzke, "Beyond Dispute: International Judicial Institutions as Lawmakers", 12 German Law Journal (2011) 979-1004, available below.