Public Theology and Global Governance: Weak Actors in Lawmaking for the World Economy

Abstract

Abstract The world confronts an enormous range of challenges in the global economy. A far-reaching enterprise has arisen to meet these challenges by producing laws and regulations to shape and protect global commercial and financial markets. This article considers how a Christian theology can guide the highly consequential processes of creating law for world commerce. First, from the perspective of the sociology of globalization, law and markets, the article describes findings from current research on who makes global law and how they make that law in the United Nations’ principal body for the creation of private international law. Second, the article proposes that public theology offers Christian theological principles and middle level axioms to deepen and extend the dimensionality of global lawmaking, thereby offering ethical guidance for prospective global lawmaking. It sharpens focus by appraising the participation and creativity of weak actors in global lawmaking. Third, the article turns to praxis for weak actors in global lawmaking and concludes with considerations that may foster mutually productive dialog between social scientists and public theologians of the global.