Global Governance (LAWS90063)

The multiplication of new sites, techniques and modalities of international law demands new maps of how, where, and why international legality is made, and how it affects the world. This subject asks students to engage theoretically with some contemporary thinking about the structures of global governance, through readings drawn from a variety of disciplines, including sociology, science and technology studies, politics and law. This theoretical material is set side by side with, and explored through, a series of four grounded case studies, drawn from issue areas of contemporary concern such as global finance, climate change, trade, tobacco control, biotechnology and development. The subject will be primarily organised around questions of fragmentation and expertise. ‘Fragmentation’ in this context refers to the proliferation of sites of global governance: we will be interested in the causes of this phenomenon, as well as the challenges to which it gives rise. The theme of ‘expertise’ signals an interest in processes of knowledge production in international regimes, including contemporary re-articulations of the power-knowledge nexus.

There will be four case studies addressed in the subject, the content of which may change from year to year. Illustrative topics include the global dimensions of:

• the regulation of biotech foods
• currency manipulation
• tobacco control
• regulation of transactions in derivatives
• the industrial policy of climate change
• global fisheries management
• foreign investment in agriculture and infrastructure services

The theoretical writing will be organised around four themes, which may include some of:

• global constitutionalism
• empire
• sociotechnical imaginaries
• reflexivity
• regime interaction
• expertise
• global administrative law
• new governance

The law and institutions covered in the subject will depend on the case studies chosen. However, students can expect a significant part of the subject to focus on such institutions as the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Food and Agricultural Organization, the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, the World Health Organization, the Codex Alimentarius Commission, and their related bodies of law.