The Origins of Informality

Global Economy ◽

Institutional Design ◽

Regulatory State ◽

New Approach ◽

The World ◽

Formal Organizations ◽

Novel Theory ◽

Legal Foundations

This book explores the phenomenon of informal international organizations. These bodies are involved in governing many of the most important issues the world currently faces, and differ significantly from the highly legalized, formal organizations the world has traditionally relied on. But despite their evident importance, they remain poorly understood. This book develops a new approach to thinking about these puzzling institutions, presents new data revealing their extraordinary growth over time, and develops a novel theory about why states are creating them. The theory explains how states form preferences over the informality of international organization and how legal designs get chosen through often contentious bargaining processes. This theory of institutional design then informs a more dynamic account of the rise of informality. This account explains how major shifts occurring in the domestic political arenas of powerful states—especially growing polarization and the rise of the regulatory state—have been projected outward and reshaped the legal foundations of global governance. The book systematically tests this theory, quantitatively and qualitatively, and presents detailed accounts of the forces behind some of the most important institutions in the global economy. It concludes with an analysis of the effectiveness of informal organizations, finding that many are likely to be less capable of addressing the complex challenges the world presently confronts.

Legitimation Contests

International Organizations under Pressure ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198837893.003.0002 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 29-61 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Klaus Dingwerth ◽

Antonia Witt

Keyword(s):

Theoretical Framework ◽

Time Change ◽

The World

In this chapter, we lay out the theoretical framework that informs our book. We argue that international organizations are legitimated in processes of contestation in which a plethora of actors seeks to define what distinguishes a ‘good’ from a ‘bad’ international organization. In doing so, the actors draw on as well as shape the normative environments in which international organizations are embedded. These environments, in turn, depend on the world political contexts of their time. Change in what we call the terms of legitimation therefore comes from two ends: first, from the dynamics of interaction among those who take part in legitimation contests (‘change from within’); and second, from material or ideational developments that support or challenge the persuasiveness of individual normative frames (‘change from the outside’).

John Jackson and the GATT's Transformation

World Trade Review ◽

10.1017/s1474745616000148 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 15 (3) ◽

pp. 401-403

Author(s):

STEVE CHARNOVITZ

Keyword(s):

World Trade ◽

Law Students ◽

Leadership Roles ◽

Government Officials ◽

Trading System ◽

Trade Law ◽

The World ◽

Ann Arbor

John Jackson's long, fruitful association with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was unique in the annals of international organizations. His 1969 book, World Trade and the Law of GATT, became the Baedeker for government officials, practitioners, and academics seeking an overall understanding of the trading system or an explanation of a particular GATT provision. Yet the uniqueness of Jackson's relationship to the GATT was not just his foundational scholarship; every international organization in the twentieth century spawned a scholarly community. The uniqueness came from his role as a teacher attracting graduate law students from around the world who traveled to Ann Arbor to study with him and then returned to their countries to take on leadership roles in international trade. These decades of students inspired by Jackson and educated by his synoptic understanding of trade law enhanced Jackson's influence on the GATT in a way that has no parallel in other agencies.

The power and dysfunctions of evaluation systems in international organizations

Evaluation ◽

10.1177/1356389017749068 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

pp. 26-41 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Estelle Raimondo

Keyword(s):

Organizational Performance ◽

Evaluation System ◽

Evaluation Theory ◽

Evaluation Systems ◽

Empirical Inquiry ◽

Organization Sociology ◽

The World ◽

Project Level

Evaluations do not take place in a vacuum. Evaluation systems are embedded within organizations; they shape and are shaped by organizational norms, processes, and behaviors. In International Organizations, evaluation systems are ubiquitous. Yet, little is known about how they “function,” namely how they are used, how they contribute to organizational performance, and how they influence actors’ behaviors. These are empirical questions that cannot be solved without a robust theoretical grounding, which is currently absent from the existing evaluation literature. This article seeks to bridge some of the identified gaps by weaving together insights from evaluation theory and international organization sociology into a unifying framework of factors. The article then demonstrates how the framework can be used to empirically study the relative power and dysfunction of evaluation systems within International Organizations. A forthcoming connected contribution will illustrate such empirical inquiry through the case of the World Bank’s project-level evaluation system.

Assumptions of the Global Economic Crisis and Its Inception in the Spring of 2020 Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic

International Organisations Research Journal ◽

10.17323/1996-7845-2020-02-09 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

pp. 191-212

Author(s):

Alexey Portanskiy ◽

◽

Yulia Sudakova ◽

Alexander Larionov ◽

◽

...

Keyword(s):

Financial Crisis ◽

Economic Crisis ◽

Global Economy ◽

World Economy ◽

Global Financial Crisis ◽

Negative Impact ◽

International System ◽

The World ◽

Global Economic Crisis

Analytical agencies, as well as international organizations, have identified significant threats to the development of the world economy, increasing the likelihood of a new global financial crisis in late 2020–early 2021. The main challenges to the system come from trade wars that could lead to a crisis in the international system of trade regulation, a decrease in the effectiveness of public policy instruments, and a deterioration in the dynamics of global economic growth. An important factor leading to a slowdown in the global economy in 2020 will also be the coronavirus pandemic, although it is difficult, in the first half of 2020, to assess its final impact. The combination of these negative factors, coupled with the unresolved problems of the 2008 global financial crisis, significantly increases the likelihood of a new global economic crisis which could surpass the Great Depression of the 1930s. This study systematizes the main forecasts by international organizations and analytical agencies for the growth of the world economy and considers various theoretical concepts to identify the symptoms of the impending crisis. Ultimately, this article offers options for reducing the negative impact of the crisis on Russia. In connection with the coronavirus pandemic, preliminary estimates have been made of the likely damage to the world economy and the prospects for its recovery.

Responsibility of the WTO for Breach of an International Obligation under the Draft Articles on Responsibility of International Organizations

Canadian Yearbook of international Law/Annuaire canadien de droit international ◽

10.1017/s0069005800010845 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 50 ◽

pp. 197-242

Author(s):

Noemi Gal-Or

Keyword(s):

International Law ◽

World Trade ◽

Legal Personality ◽

International Obligation ◽

The World ◽

History Of ◽

International Responsibility ◽

International Legal Personality

SummaryThis article challenges the argument that the World Trade Organization (WTO) is devoid of executive or governing functions and, hence, immune from the regime set out in the International Law Commission’s 2011 Draft Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations (RIO). A brief drafting history of the RIO, clarification of the terminology associated with matters of international responsibility, and two hypothetical examples illustrating the potential for WTO responsibility set the stage for the article’s main argument. The author examines the WTO’s nature by analyzing its constituent law, its sui generis mandate and functions, its international legal personality, and its own use of terminology in presenting itself to the world. Critical analysis of RIO Articles 64 (on lex specialis) and 10 (on the existence of a breach of an international obligation), and their application to the WTO, completes the argument. The author thus refutes both the notions that (1) the WTO is exclusively member driven and, hence, not an executive, governing organization but a sui generis entity and (2) the WTO is therefore unable to breach an international obligation and thus immune from the RIO regime. The article concludes that, while a breach by the WTO of an international obligation may be exceedingly rare, it nonetheless — as any international organization — comes within the ambit of the RIO regime. The WTO should therefore consider adjusting its internal rules accordingly.

Introduction

10.1093/oso/9780197586488.003.0001 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-4

Author(s):

Christopher M. Davidson

Keyword(s):

Saudi Arabia ◽

Global Economy ◽

The Political ◽

Direct Impact ◽

Political Systems ◽

The World ◽

Authority Structures

This introductory chapter establishes the importance of studying the Gulf monarchies, while noting that relatively little attention has been paid to contemporary statecraft and the ways in which underlying authority structures might be changing. It describes how recent and possibly interconnected shifts have been taking place deep inside the political systems of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, particularly in the wake of the conspicuous strengthening of personal powers in the hands of MBS and MBZ. Given that these states now indisputably serve as major components of the global economy and are increasingly influential members of international organizations, it identifies an urgent need to recognize that major ruptures in the structural logic of their regimes could well end up having a direct impact--for better or worse--on policies, economies, and individual livelihoods all around the world.

COVID-19 Translated: WHO’s and the City of Ottawa English and Arabic Narrative of the Pandemic

Technium Social Sciences Journal ◽

10.47577/tssj.v11i1.1624 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 ◽

pp. 559-574

Author(s):

Fadi Jaber

Keyword(s):

Narrative Analysis ◽

World Health ◽

Related Information ◽

The World ◽

Similarities And Differences ◽

Health Organization ◽

The City ◽

Do So

Many national and international organizations have constructed and disseminated COVID-19 public narrative and have contributed into the construction of the pandemic meta-narrative. The World Health Organization (henceforth WHO) is the international organization responsible for publishing COVID-19 related information to global audiences and citizens. However, the City of Ottawa is the Canadian federal capital responsible for disseminating information about the pandemic to its citizens who reside in Ottawa. In the light of the evolving events, this paper explores the English and Arabic public narrative of COVID-19 as constructed and published by WHO on its multilingual website and by the City of Ottawa Public Health in Canada. In specific, it scrutinizes how similar or different the communicative messages and meanings are as embedded in the English and Arabic texts of the pandemic public narrative. To do so, this paper methodologically utilizes a qualitative narrative analysis research design guided by narrative theory, types of narrative, and narrative features. Accordingly, the corpus consists of 48 English texts and their 48 Arabic translated texts which were published on WHO’s website under two COVID-19 pandemic topics: “Myth busters” and “Q & As on coronaviruses (COVID-19)”. As well, this paper analyses 12 English texts and their 12 Arabic translated texts which were published on the City of Ottawa’s website. The findings of this paper provide further understanding of similarities and differences in communicative messages and meanings as embedded in the English and Arabic public narrative of COVID-19 pandemic, and as published and represented by WHO and the City of Ottawa.

“Mirror, Mirror On the Wall:” Self-Legitimation by International Organizations

International Studies Quarterly ◽

10.1093/isq/sqz089 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 64 (1) ◽

pp. 207-219 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Sarah von Billerbeck

Keyword(s):

World Bank ◽

North Atlantic ◽

Constitutive Activity ◽

The North ◽

The World Bank ◽

The World ◽

Novel Theory ◽

Temporal Dimensions ◽

Mirror Mirror

Abstract Most analyses of legitimacy and legitimation in international organizations (IOs) focus on the perceptions of external audiences. In so doing, they fail to consider self-legitimation, where an IO undertakes legitimation internally, as a way of developing and reinforcing its identity. Moreover, most studies of IO legitimacy neglect the fact that IO identities are rarely uniform and instead are multiple and conflicting. I address these omissions by examining self-legitimation in three IOs—the United Nations (UN), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the World Bank. These organizations are both operational and normative actors, and both institutions dependent on member states and autonomous bodies with independent expertise and capacities. These identities sometimes dictate contradictory goals and practices, forcing the organizations to violate the principles and activities considered appropriate to one of their identities, thus complicating legitimation. Based on extensive fieldwork and drawing on a range of disciplines, this article proposes a novel theory of IO self-legitimation: I argue that the need for self-legitimation depends on the degree of identity cohesion and identity hierarchy of the organization. I identify two temporal dimensions of self-legitimation, three categories of self-legitimation practices, and three broader repercussions of self-legitimation, ultimately showing that self-legitimation is a necessary and constitutive activity for IOs.

Remarks by Mary Saunders

Proceedings of the ASIL Annual Meeting ◽

10.1017/amp.2019.51 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 112 ◽

pp. 281-283

Author(s):

Mary Saunders

Keyword(s):

International Standards ◽

National Standards ◽

World Health ◽

Large Network ◽

For Profit ◽

Not For Profit ◽

The World ◽

Health Organization

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is an independent, non-governmental, not-for-profit organization that develops and publishes fully consensus-based International Standards. ISO members are national standards bodies (NSBs), which may be government, private, or public-private entities. 163 NSBs are members of ISO. The ISO standards portfolio numbers more than 20,000 standards. ISO also has a large network of liaison organizations—which can participate in the ISO process but do not vote. These include many treaty organizations, including the World Health Organization, Codex, the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and so on; as well as numerous other international organizations.

The International Law Commission’s Definition of International Organizations

International Organizations Law Review ◽

10.1163/15723747-00902004 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 451-465 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Stephen Bouwhuis

Keyword(s):

International Law ◽

Recent Work ◽

The World ◽

Definition Of

Whilst the number of international organizations in the world has flourished in recent decades, attempts to analyse them have been hampered by disagreement as to how even to define what is an international organization. The International Law Commission’s recent work on the responsibility of international organizations addresses this absence by providing such a definition. This note tests that definition by applying it to one particular organization, the Commonwealth Secretariat, to see how it applies in practice and concludes with general observations on whether the definition might be used more broadly.