Multilevel governance problems of the World Trading System beyond the WTO conference at Bali

Abstract

This contribution argues that the perennial negotiations on adjustments of the law of the WTO (e. g. by means of the Doha Round negotiations) and of UN law (e. g. adjustments of the IMF quota and voting system, UN climate change regulations) reflect systemic problems of multilevel governance of international public goods (PGs) that call for reviewing traditional regulatory approaches at national and international levels of governance (as discussed in Sections II and III) so as to better respond to the 'collective action problems' of multilevel governance of international PGs (as discussed in Section IV). The concluding Section V draws policy lessons from the WTO agreements adopted at the WTO Ministerial Conference at Bali. Rather than lamenting about 'fragmentation' of UN and WTO law, bilateral, regional and other plurilateral agreements can be justified as necessary instruments for reforming international law for the benefit of citizens; the 'consistent interpretation'-and 'judicial comity'-requirements of national and international legal systems call for interpreting such agreements in conformity with the UN and WTO legal obligations of contracting parties as integral parts of multilevel governance of 'aggregate PGs' demanded by citizens.