Contesting the 'Sovereigntists': How to Learn to Stop Worrying and Love International Institutions

Abstract:     
In INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND THEIR EXERCISE OF SOVEREIGN POWERS (Oxford, 2005) Professor Dan Sarooshi argues that concern about the democracy deficit in international organizations is misplaced. He sets out an alternative claim that states should embrace those institutions and procedures that permit contestation of sovereign values within international organizations. Sarooshi's typology of conferrals of sovereign power is useful to understanding the distribution of legal rights and obligations that result from state participation in international organizations. However, the book's central claim - that the project of global governance results in an ongoing process of contestation of the meaning of sovereignty - fails to respond adequately to the unique problems that conferrals of powers to international institutions create for democracies.

Accepted Paper Series