Informal International Lawmaking: Case Studies compiles case studies on instances of informal international lawmaking (IN-LAW) in diverse policy areas, including finance, investment, competition, pharmaceuticals and medical device regulation, food regulation, human rights, disaster management, and trade in diamonds. The term 'informal' international lawmaking is used in contrast and opposition to 'traditional' international lawmaking. More concretely, IN-LAW is informal in the sense that it dispenses with certain formalities traditionally linked to international law. These formalities may have to do with the process, actors and output involved. The literature has mostly criticized IN-LAW for its 'accountability deficits'. The chapters in this book, hence, do not simply give a descriptive overview of the case studies, but approach them from an accountability perspective. In this context, different questions are raised, such as: Is IN-LAW subject to any accountability measures? How accountable are IN-LAW participants to their constituents? How accountable are they towards those affected by their decisions? Are the accountability measures available at the international or at the domestic level? The book also examines how IN-LAW is elaborated and subsequently received in domestic legal systems, using the Netherlands and Brazil as case studies.

Policy-makers, national administrations, and regulators engage in making laws without the formalities associated with treaties or customary law. This book analyses this informal international lawmaking and its impact on contemporary trends in international interaction, looking at the questions of accountability and effectiveness it raises.

The last one hundred years have seen a number of events that could be perceived as disruptive challenges to the normal operation of the legal order. Some have been disruptive innovations of technologies or business practices, others social changes or constitutional transformations, further buttressed by the impact of globalisation and interdependence affecting the development of international, transnational and global law. Coincidentally, this period of one hundred years has been bookended by two pandemics, themselves disruptive realities testing the resilience as well as the adaptability of the legal regimes. A hundred years ago, the founding dean of a newly established law faculty beginning its mission amid the ashes of the First World War and the disintegration of the only remaining European empire gave an opening lecture exploring the role of law and judges in the face of revolutionary societal changes. Drawing upon that important text, this edited volume explores similar challenges for law brought about by various disruptive realities. The collection looks at the past as well as the future. Following the text of the opening lecture by Pitamic, the contributions are grouped under five headings, dealing with the law and revolution in 1918, the challenges posed for law by the seemingly more gradual political or technological transformations, the effects of globalisation and the changing world, with the final contributions reassessing the law, its methodologies and traditional paradigms including, in the epilogue, the challenges posed for law the recent disruptive reality of the Covid-19 pandemic. The book will be of interest to academics, researchers and policy-makers working in the areas of legal history, jurisprudence, constitutional law, law and politics, and law and technology.

An edited volume exploring the interaction between EU external relations law and private law, examining how the relationship has affected the evolution of the EU's competence, the extent of EU private law's reach beyond the boundaries of an internal market, and how the EU contributes to the formation of private regulation at an international level.

The global landscape has changed profoundly over the past decades. As a result, the making of international law and the way we think about it has become more and more diversified. This Research Handbook offers a comprehensive guide to the theory and practice of international lawmaking today. It takes stock at both the conceptual and the empirical levels of the instruments, processes, and actors involved in the making of international law. The editors have taken an approach which carefully combines theory and practice in order to provide both an overview and a critical reflection of international lawmaking. Comprehensive and well-structured, the book contains essays by leading scholars on key aspects of international lawmaking and on lawmaking in the main issue areas. Attention is paid to classic processes as well as new developments and shades of normativity. This timely and authoritative Handbook will be a valuable resource for academics, students, legal practitioners, diplomats, government and international organization officials as well as civil society representatives.

This edited volume examines the role of international law in a changing global order. Can we, under the current significantly changing conditions, still observe an increasing juridification of international relations based on a universal understanding of values? Or are we, to the contrary, facing a tendency towards an informalization or a reformalization of international law, or even an erosion of international legal norms? Would it be appropriate to revisit classical elements of international law in order to react to structural changes, which may give rise to a more polycentric or non-polar world order? Or are we simply observing a slump in the development towards an international rule of law based on a universal understanding of values? In eleven chapters, distinguished scholars reflect on how to approach these questions from historical, system-oriented and actor-centered perspectives. The contributions engage with the rise of European international law since the 17th century, the decay of the international rule of law, compliance as an indicator for the state of international law, international law and informal law-making in times of populism, the rule of environmental law and complex problems, human rights in Europe in a hostile environment, the influence of the BRICS states on international law, the impact of non-state actors on international law, international law's contribution to global justice, the contestation of value-based norms and the international rule of law in light of legitimacy claims.

The Research Handbook on Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance presents a comprehensive view of a rapidly evolving area of study. Adopting a comparative approach, it goes beyond issues of sustainability and human rights, covering the whole spectrum of ESG and its regulatory developments.