Toward inclusive global governance, or is it too late?

INTERNATIONAL LAW ASSOCIATION
(British Branch) Lecture:

Toward Inclusive Global Governance, or Is It Too Late?
by Professor Eyal Benvenisti
University of Cambridge

Chaired by Professor Roger O’Keefe, UCL

This lecture is accredited with 1 CPD hour by the SRA and BSB.

About the lecture

The rising tide of nationalism (aka localism, nativism) has reached new peaks in 2016. According to several observers, the rise of the national reflects voters’ resentment towards neoliberal globalization served by multilateral institutions. Middle-income voters, in both developed and developing countries, regard global institutions such as the WTO, NAFTA and the EU as responsible for diverting resources and opportunities to the few, while depriving them of voice, of jobs, and depleting national social safety nets. Is it possible for multilateral institutions to regain the trust of the diffuse voters by becoming more accountable to them, provide them with opportunities to convey their concerns and assert their demands? In my talk I will first explore the causes and consequences of the diminishing voice of key constituencies as a result of multilateralism, and then reflect on possible legal and other responses that might make global governance institutions more inclusive and consequently also more egalitarian.

About the speaker

Eyal Benvenisti is Whewell Professor of International Law at the University of Cambridge and the NG Professorial Fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge. He is also Professor of Law at Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law and Global Professor of Law at New York University School of Law. He was Visiting Professor at several law schools (Yale, Harvard, Toronto, Columbia, Pennsylvania, Michigan) and gave a special course at The Hague Academy of International Law (2013).  He is Project Director of the “GlobalTrust – Sovereigns as Trustees of Humanity” research project, funded by an ERC Advanced Grant. Eyal is an Associate Member, Institut de droit international (2011), co-Editor of the British Yearbook of International Law and on the Editorial Board of the American Journal of International Law. Eyal’s most recent publications include: Between Fragmentation and Democracy: The Role of National and International Courts (forthcoming, with George W. Downs); The Law of Global Governance, in the Collected Courses of The Hague Academy of International Law (2014; issued also as a “pocket book”); The International Law of Occupation (2nd ed., Oxford University Press 2012); War is Governance: Explaining the Logic of the Laws of War from a Principal-Agent Perspective, 112 MICHIGAN L. REV. 1363 (2014) (with Amichai Cohen); Sovereigns as Trustees of Humanity: On the Accountability of States to Foreign Stakeholders, 107 AM. J. INT’L. L. 295 (2013).