Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2004

Publication Information

in The Governance of Globalization 85 (Edmond Malinvaud & Louis Sabourin eds., 2004).

Abstract

It is a great privilege to comment on a paper that, like so much of Professor Weiler’s work, is brilliant not only in its intellectual scope but also in the underlying humanity of its vision. His basic thesis is indisputable. International law is indeed an exercise in governance that increasingly generates problems of legitimacy, especially because it governs without the ontological premises of democracy – it has no government and no demos. In the face of this problem, Weiler urges us to seek ‘alternative legitimating devices’. I would like to offer a modest comment on this thesis by making three observations about some of the basic principles that could inspire any such ‘alternative legitimating devices’ for international law, using a few examples of developments in international law as points of departure.

The PROCEEDINGS of the Ninth Plenary Session of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences 2-6 May 2003

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