The Global Legal Order

Abstract

Global law, or the Law of Humanity, does not yet constitute a legal order in the strictest sense, but it is called to become one. It is not yet a legal order because a handful of globally applicable norms without internal coherence or a clear system of elaboration, modification, and voluntary or coercive compliance cannot constitute an ordo iuris . But today there is an inescapable social imperative for just such an order. It is the task of jurists to bring us to the point where we can accurately speak of a new global legal order. We would be making a serious mistake if we applied the current standards of national orders to a global legal order, for this could easily become an attempt to create a world state. It would also be a mistake to create something ex novo , as if no existing legal traditions were useful, or as if the constructs of international law born of the Peace of Westphalia were merely a set of useless ruminations. After all, in the twentieth century, especially after World War II, the science of international law has been adequate, securing such important milestones as the Declaration of Human Rights, the European Union (EU), and the World Trade Organization. But this is no longer enough.