Liquid Authority: Law, Institutions and Legitimacy in Global Governance

Lecture Series "Beyond Anarchy: Rule and Authority in the International System"

Prof. Nico Krisch, Catalan Institute of Advanced Studies (ICREA) and Barcelona Institute

30 October 2013, 6.15pm
Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main
Campus Westend, Hörsaalzentrum HZ 10

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Abstract
We are used to thinking about politics and law as based on firm institutions with authoritative decision-making power. Most of our key categories and democratic mechanisms revolve around such solid institutions. But solidity has been called into question through the rise of ‘governance’ – and even more so, the rise of global governance. Authority in the global context has increasingly been liquefied: it no longer has a clear locus, it is spread across multiple sites, its forms are malleable, and the actors behind it are often unclear. How can such authority be held to account? Does law continue to play a role in checking it? How can we assess the legitimacy of such governance structures? This talk will look at the rising challenge of liquid authority and different kinds of responses to it.

CV
Nico Krisch is a Research Professor at the Catalan Institute of Advanced Studies (ICREA) and the Barcelona Institute of International Studies (IBEI). His expertise lies in the fields of international law, international institutions and global governance. Previously he has been a Professor of International Law at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, a Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, a Senior Lecturer at the Law Department of the London School of Economics, and has held postdoctoral fellowships at Merton College (Oxford) and New York University School of Law. He holds a Ph.D. in law from the University of Heidelberg and a Diploma of European Law of the Academy of European Law in Florence, Italy. He is the author of Selbstverteidigung und kollektive Sicherheit (Self-defense and Collective Security, 2001) and of articles on the United Nations, hegemony in international law, and the legal order of global governance. His most recent book, Beyond Constitutionalism: The Pluralist Structure of Postnational Law (2010), was awarded the 2012 Certificate of Merit of the American Society of International Law.

Programme (pdf): click here...

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