Conclusions: Multilevel Governance of Sustainable Development Requires Multilevel Twenty-First Century Constitutionalism

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 9 concludes that authoritarian power politics in United Nations (UN) and World Trade Organization (WTO) institutions and inside many UN member states remains the biggest impediment to realizing citizen-oriented sustainable development goals (SDGs). Rendering WTO law consistent with climate change mitigation and with other SDGs requires interpreting the WTO’s embedded liberalism in conformity with modern human rights and environmental law. Recent environmental, constitutional, and human rights litigation in Europe illustrates the potential synergies between human and constitutional rights, economic and environmental law, and adjudication. Yet, Europe’s multilevel constitutionalism empowering citizens to challenge governmental disregard for sustainable development goals in national and European courts is resisted in multilevel governance outside Europe. The goal of a global partnership for sustainable development with the participation of all countries, all stakeholders, and all people requires innovative, legal practices of UN/WTO institutions and member states, for instance by strengthening of private–public partnerships (like COVAX), network governance (e.g. among independent competition, health and environmental agencies similar to the institutionalized cooperation among central banks), multilevel judicial remedies (including WTO appellate review and multilateral investment courts), individual rights, and transnational rule of law. The human rights, constitutional and environmental litigation discussed in Chapter 9 confirms that, the more civil societies and non-governmental organizations are directly involved in health and environmental protection treaties, the better they can monitor and resist abuses of public and private power. The global governance failures in responding to environmental, health, migration, and other human disasters illustrate the need for multilevel constitutional restraints protecting the SDGs.