The Commons And A New Global Governance

Given the new-found importance of the commons in current political discourse, it has become increasingly necessary to explore the democratic, institutional, and legal implications of the commons for global governance today. This book analyses and explores the ground-breaking model of the commons and its relation to these debates.

The predicament of uncontrolled growth in a finite world puts the global commons Ð such as oceans, atmosphere, and biosphere Ð at risk. So far, states have not found the means to protect what, essentially, is outside their jurisdiction. However, the ju

This is the first volume arising from the work of the Centre for the Study of Global Governance, based at the London School of Economics. Governance in this context should not be confused with government; it is not the idea of one-world government which is being revived. Global governance as a concept and as a programme needs to be defined in the context of four pillars: post-mural; post-imperial; post-Keynesian; and post-industrial. The two political pillars - the post-mural and the post-imperial - define the constraints on the UN system. The two economic pillars run across the political, and are reconstituting the world in a way more radical than the political. This volume examines the ethical, ecological and economics issues emerging from the changing global order.

Constitutions and the Commons looks at a critical but little examined issue of the degree to which the federal constitution of a nation contributes toward or limits the ability of the national government to manage its domestic natural resources. Furthermore it considers how far the constitution facilitates the binding of constituent states, provinces or subnational units to honor the conditions of international environmental treaties. While the main focus is on the US, there is also detailed coverage of other nations such as Australia, Brazil, India, and Russia. After introducing the role of constitutions in establishing the legal framework for environmental management in federal systems, the author presents a continuum of constitutionally driven natural resource management scenarios, from local to national, and then to global governance. These sections describe how subnational governance in federal systems may take on the characteristics of a commons – with all the attendant tragedies – in the absence of sufficient national constitutional authority. In turn, sufficient national constitutional authority over natural resources also allows these nations to more effectively engage in efforts to manage the global commons, as these nations would be unconstrained by subnational units of government during international negotiations. It is thus shown that national governments in federal systems are at the center of a constitutional 'nested governance commons,' with lower levels of government potentially acting as rational herders on the national commons and national governments potentially acting as rational herders on the global commons. National governments in federal systems are therefore crucial to establishing sustainable management of resources across scales. The book concludes by discussing how federal systems without sufficient national constitutional authority over resources may be strengthened by adopting the approach of federal constitutions that facilitate more robust national level inputs into natural resources management, facilitating national minimum standards as a form of "Fail-safe Federalism" that subnational governments may supplement with discretion to preserve important values of federalism.

Identifies the major weaknesses in the current United Nations system and proposes fundamental reforms to address each. This title is also available as Open Access.

Case study rich, this volume advances our understanding of the significance of 'the city' in global governance. The editors call for innovation in international relations theory with case studies that add breadth to theorizing the role sub-national political actors play in global affairs. Each of the eight case studies demonstrates different intersections between the local and the global and how these intersections alter the conditions resulting from globalization processes. The case studies do so by focusing on one of three sub-themes: the diverse ways in which cities and sub-national regions impact nation-state foreign policy; the various dimensions of urban imbrications in global environmental politics; or the multiple methods and standards used to measure the global roles of cities.

How should we govern the commercialization of humanity ́s common heritage? International Law has developed important institutions of global governance and distributive justice to put resources such as the deep sea bed and outer space beyond state ownership, preserving them as part of a common heritage for the benefit of all humanity and future generations. But as the technology of exploitation becomes viable, these areas are coming under threat from important states and Big Business. The political, moral, legal and environmental concerns arise and must be addressed - before it is too late. Offering readers a clear introduction to this field, the authors bring the various legal regimes under a single conceptual framework and consider what justice requires in response to the dangers posed by the scramble to exploit our common heritage. They develop a distinctive account of the interstitial legal and moral reasoning that can and should shape arguments about global commons, global justice and international law, and demonstrate how normative arguments of distributive justice can be relevant to both international law and international politics. Arguing for the centrality of distributive issues to global justice, they extend the 'practical turn' in international political theory in new and exciting directions, showing how global commons ideas could be made central to many important traditions in political theory.

Recent years have seen a remarkable resurgence in rigorous thought on global government by leading thinkers in international relations, economics, and political theory. Not since the immediate post-World War II period have so many scholars given serious attention to possibilities for global political integration. This book will be of interest to students of international relations, political theory, international economics, secuity and gender studies. It pulls together some of the leading current thinkers on global government into a conversation about provocative global institutional visions. Chapters here explore whether a world state should be viewed as inevitable, ways in which global moral and political communities might be sustained, and reasons to reject world government in favor of improvements to governance in the United Nations and other institutions.