The Hybrid Legal-Scientific Dynamic of Transnational Scientific Institutions

European Journal of International Law, 2015 26 (2): 391-416

26 Pages Posted: 16 May 2014 Last revised: 11 Feb 2016

See all articles by Oren Perez

Oren Perez

Bar-Ilan University - Faculty of Law

Date Written: May 15, 2014

Abstract

The objective of the present article is to develop a better understanding of the institutional dynamic of transnational regulatory scientific institutions (RSIs). RSIs play a significant role in the transnational regulatory process by mediating between the scientific community and policy-making bodies. I argue that RSIs have a hybrid structure involving both political-legal and epistemic authority. The hybrid structure of RSIs, their capacity to exert both normative and epistemic authority, constitutes an innovative response to the demand of modern society for scientific certainty and to the scarcity of normative power in the international domain. This hybrid nature has a triple structure, involving three complementary pairs: law~science, law~non-law, and science~pseudoscience. I examine the way in which RSIs cope with the challenge of maintaining their epistemic and legal authority against the tensions generated by their hybrid structure. The discussion of hybrid authority is related to the problem of scientific uncertainty. I examine this theoretical argument drawing on an in-depth analysis of three RSIs that reflect the institutional diversity of the RSI network: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), and the European Committee of Homeopaths (ECH). I conclude with a discussion of some of the policy issues associated with the institutional design of RSIs. The policy discussion refers first to the risk posed by RSIs' hybrid structure to their internal stability; and second to some potential adverse social impacts which need to be considered alongside RSIs' projected benefits.

Keywords: hybrid authority, regulatory scientific institutions, transnational regulation, complementary pairs, fuzzy law

JEL Classification: K10, K33

Suggested Citation

Perez, Oren, The Hybrid Legal-Scientific Dynamic of Transnational Scientific Institutions (May 15, 2014). European Journal of International Law, 2015 26 (2): 391-416, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2437400 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2437400

Oren Perez (Contact Author)

Bar-Ilan University - Faculty of Law ( email )

Faculty of Law
Ramat Gan, 52900
Israel
+972-3-5317798 (Phone)
+972-3-5351856 (Fax)

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