| This paper discusses the relationship between democratic legitimacy and international economic law. It recalls the challenges to democracy through international economic law and claims that traditional elements of democratic legitimacy of international law are insufficient in light of the quasi-supranational character of many aspects of international economic law. Based on Thomas Franck's contribution on the "Emerging right to democratic governance" (1992), the paper argues that democratic governance is already an emerging principle of international economic law. In particular, the paper identifies three existing elements of democratic governance which can be found in a large number of international economic institutions: Transparency, dialogue with civil society and parliamentary participation. An empirical survey of the WTO, the International Financial Institutions and selected regional economic institutions shows that these elements are becoming ever more relevant in the practice of these organizations. Apart from the existing elements of democratic governance in international economic institutions, there are also missing elements which need to be addressed to fully establish democratic governance of international economic law. They include inclusiveness of the internal decision-making process, representation of the people and inter-institutional and inter-regime comprehensiveness. In order to address the later problem, the paper suggests in its last part the establishment of a "World Economic Parliamentary Assembly" and places the idea in the context of a cosmopolitan (Held) and a deliberative (Habermas) approach to democracy. |
Krajewski, Markus
2008
in: Society of International Economic Law (SIEL) Inaugural Conference Paper
Weitere Informationen
Externer Link 
|
