Legitimation and Global Lawmaking

74 Pages Posted: 19 Dec 2006

See all articles by Susan Block-Lieb

Susan Block-Lieb

Fordham University School of Law

Terence C. Halliday

American Bar Foundation; School of Regulation & Global Governance (RegNet); Northwestern University - Department of Sociology

Date Written: December 2006

Abstract

In late 2004, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) concluded a five-year project to produce global standards on corporate bankruptcy law for national law-makers. Because insolvency law is so culturally contextualized, skeptics viewed any global consensus as either impossible to achieve or likely to result in language so vague as to be useless. Yet in a surprisingly short time, UNCITRAL produced its Legislative Guide on Insolvency Law. Even before completion of the Guide, international organizations, as well as reformers from advanced and developing economies, began using its provisions for standard-setting and national law reform. UNCITRAL's Legislative Guide presents more than a simple success story; adoption of the Legislative Guide on Insolvency Law presents a vantage point for generating a theory of conditions under which global organizations can resolve a central paradox of global lawmaking. The paradox is straightforward: international organizations must be legitimate to be effective; but effectiveness is subverted by the very process of legitimation. If law-making organizations are not considered legitimate, the principles or rules articulated by them will be less persuasive and hence less binding. In turn, a lower probability of compliance or adoption by nation-states will reduce global convergence around the norms. But to become legitimate through representation, international organizations must incorporate divergent interests, which at best complicate and at worst thwart consensual lawmaking. It is therefore both a scholarly challenge and a pragmatic necessity to understand what resolutions of this tension are possible in global lawmaking forums.

Suggested Citation

Block-Lieb, Susan and Halliday, Terence C., Legitimation and Global Lawmaking (December 2006). Fordham Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 952492, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=952492 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.952492

Susan Block-Lieb (Contact Author)

Fordham University School of Law ( email )

140 West 62nd Street
New York, NY 10023
United States
(212) 636-6782 (Phone)
(212) 636-6899 (Fax)

Terence C. Halliday

American Bar Foundation ( email )

750 N. Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, IL 60611
United States

School of Regulation & Global Governance (RegNet) ( email )

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200
Australia

Northwestern University - Department of Sociology ( email )

1810 Chicago Ave
Evanston, IL 60208
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
413
Abstract Views
4,304
Rank
130,298
PlumX Metrics