Global climate change governance is complex and opaque. It reaches beyond international climate change law involving many different legal instruments as well as a great number of different actors and networks. The ambition of this research project is to grasp, analyze, systematize and critique these governance mechanisms insofar the exercise public authority.
The Project is structured into two parts.The first part aims to identify the central governance mechanisms of the current climate regime and to examine to which extent their instruments should be considered exercises of public authority. It will present the legal frameworks of these instruments in order to make them accessible to a critical analysis of their legitimacy and effectiveness.
The second part then provides four lenses for such critical analysis: They are drawn from central conflict lines in international law: (1) between national and international fora, (2) the North/South Divide, (3) the Public/Private Divide and (4) the dialectic of science and politics. These lenses will deepen the understanding of the law as well as its legitimacy and effectiveness. The analysis through these four lenses will reveal global governance more generally as shaped by these lines of conflict, making thereby a contribution to general international law.
