Toward Inclusive Global Governance: What Role for International Law?

Abstract: 

The rising tide of nationalism (aka localism, nativism) has reached new peaks in 2016. According to several observers, the rise of the national reflects voters’ resentment towards neoliberal globalization served by multilateral institutions. Middle-income voters, in both developed and developing countries, regard global institutions such as the WTO, NAFTA and the EU, as responsible for diverting resources and opportunities to the few, while depriving them of voice, of jobs, and depleting national social safety nets. Is it possible for multilateral institutions to regain the trust of the diffuse voters by becoming more accountable to them, provide them with opportunities to convey their concerns and assert their demands? In my talk, I will first explore the causes and consequences of the diminishing voice of key constituencies as a result of multilateralism, and then reflect on possible legal and other responses that might make global governance institutions more inclusive and consequently more egalitarian.

Speaker's Bio: 

Eyal Benvenisti is Whewell Professor of International Law at the University of Cambridge. He was Anny and Paul Yanowicz Professor of Human Rights, Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law (from 2002) and Hersch Lauterpacht Professor of Law at the Hebrew University (from 1990). He is Global Professor of Law at New York University School of Law (since 2003). He was Visiting Professor at Yale, Harvard, Toronto, Columbia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and gave a special course at The Hague Academy of International Law (2013). Eyal’s areas of research and teaching are international law, constitutional law and administrative law. He is Project Director for the “GlobalTrust – Sovereigns as Trustees of Humanity” research project, funded by an ERC Advanced Grant.

Professor Benvenisti is the recipient of several prizes including the Humboldt Research Award and the Francis Deak Prize. He is an Associate Member, Institut de droit international (2011). He is the co Editor of the British Yearbook of International Law, and also on the Editorial Board of the American Journal of International Law. Eyal’s most recent publications include: Between Fragmentation and Democracy: The Role of National and International Courts (forthcoming, CUP) (with George W. Downs); The Law of Global Governance, in the Collected Courses of The Hague Academy of International Law (2014; issued also as a “pocket book”); The International Law of Occupation (2nd ed., Oxford University Press 2012); War is Governance: Explaining the Logic of the Laws of War from a Principal-Agent Perspective, 112 MICHIGAN L. REV. 1363 (2014) (with Amichai Cohen);Sovereigns as Trustees of Humanity: On the Accountability of States to Foreign Stakeholders, 107 AM. J. INT’L. L. 295 (2013).

PIL Lunchtime Discussion Group Series Michaelmas Term 2016.

The Public International Law Discussion Group at the University of Oxford is a key focal point for PIL@Oxford. The PIL Discussion Group hosts a weekly speaker event and light lunch. Topics involve contemporary and challenging issues in international law. Speakers include distinguished international law practitioners, academics, and legal advisers from around the world.

The group typically meets each Thursday during Oxford terms in The Old Library, All Souls College, with lunch commencing at 12:30. The speaker will commence at 12:45 and speak for about forty minutes, allowing about twenty five minutes for questions and discussion. The meeting should conclude before 2:00.

Practitioners, academics and students from within and outside the University of Oxford are all welcome. No RSVP is necessary.

The discussion group's meetings are part of the programme of the British Branch of the International Law Association and are supported by the Law Faculty and Oxford University Press.

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Convenors of the Oxford Public International Law Discussion Group are Patricia Jimenez Kwast and Nikiforos Panagis. 

Kindly sponsored by the ILA - British Branch Association and Oxford University Press.