Overcoming the Dysfunction of the Bifurcated Global System: The Promise of a Peoples Assembly

Abstract:     
The global system as presently structured relies on states to be intermediaries between citizens and the international system. This means that the planet's six billion citizens are not directly involved in creating international law, and the international order, likewise, does not for the most part directly command their compliance with its laws. Because law, domestic or international, can only affect the social order to the extent it influences the behavior of real human beings, both the process of creating and complying with international law necessarily must take place in two steps. This article makes the case that this bifurcated system is dysfunctional in that it allows states to avoid being bound by community laws, and to mobilize their citizens in contravention of international legal obligations. The article examines how a relationship between citizens and a global parliament would work to ameliorate this problem by changing the structure of global governance so that citizens would over time become direct subjects of parliamentary influenced international legal obligations.

Keywords: international law, democracy, international order, global parliament, global peoples assembly, global governance

JEL Classifications: K33

Accepted Paper Series