The legitimacy of international institutions

Abstract

The Challenge For an Account of Legitimacy The analysis of legitimacy of international institutions presents a distinct challenge because we do not yet have an entirely clear picture of the nature of international society and the position of international institutions within that society. The institutions are not very much like state institutions or voluntary associations. At the same time international society shares features of both of these kinds of association. This is an important observation because these are the classical kinds of association to which ideas of legitimacy have traditionally been applied. And so the notion of legitimacy that we apply in the case of international law and institutions will have some features of both of these. It is worth our while to have some further observations about the international system before we proceed. One, we need to have on the table the list of entities that are relevant to the characterization of international society. First, the most important entities are the states that make up the international system. Second are the international institutions that states have created but that in some cases exhibit some independence from the states that have created them. We will discuss these in some detail. Third are nongovernmental organizations that play a role in international society. Fourth are multinational corporations. Fifth are individual persons. All five of these elements are directed by international law and institutions, although states are still the principal subjects. Individuals are only marginally directly subjected to international law; mostly they are indirectly subjected to it. Two, the system is highly fragmentary. Distinct institutions govern functionally distinct as well as regionally distinct activities. There are regional economic organizations such as the European Union. The World Trade Organization has a kind of legislative function over its members’ traderelations. Global environmental treaties such as the Montreal Protocol are designed to regulate some specific global environmental matters. The United Nations Security Council has assumed some quasi-legislative functions since the end of the Cold War, but these are still fairly limited (Szasz 2002). The Security Council also exercises a kind of enforcement authority by permitting states to act against other states that threaten international peace and security. Other institutions