Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht

“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 legitimizing 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. 

Thus far, two major research projects have been initiated on the exercise of public authority: the first centres on international institutions and the second on international judicial institutions.

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

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

These pages also contain information about related projects and publications of project participants.

A previous project 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 Law.

Armin von Bogdandy, Philipp Dann and Matthias Goldmann, “Developing the Publicness of Public International Law: Towards a Legal Framework for Global Governance Activities” (2008) 9/11 German Law Journal 1375.

The project on the Exercise of International Public Authority is carried out in the context of, and in exchange with, a number of related projects:

New York University, Global Administrative Law Project 
(including affilieted institutions such as the Institute for Research on Public Administration, at Rome/Viterbo)

Frankfurt University, Cluster of Excellence “The Formation of Normative Orders”

The Collaborative Research Center 597 "Transformations of the State", Bremen            

Tel Aviv University, Buchmann Faculty of Law