Transnational Private Governance And Its Limits

This volume explores a variety of forms of transnational private governance where non-state actors cooperate across borders to establish rules and standards accepted as legitimate by other agents. Transnational private governance is a core feature of the devolution of power that we observe in the global realm and that is bringing about new forms of authority. Transnational Private Governance provides theoretically and empirically informed insights into the interactions between states and non-state actors including domains beyond intergovernmental organizations, conventional non-governmental organizations, and multinational enterprises, covering a wide range of arrangements, from highly formal devolutions of power to lax and informal platforms of interaction between private actors. Contributing to the latest generation of globalization studies, the authors consider the relationship between states and markets as closely integrated and seek to broaden the scope of enquiry by including new patterns and agents of change on a transnational basis. This book will be of great interest to researchers and students of political science, international political economy, economics, business studies, globalisation and law.

This volume explores a variety of forms of transnational private governance where non-state actors cooperate across borders to establish rules and standards accepted as legitimate by other agents. Transnational private governance is a core feature of the devolution of power that we observe in the global realm and that is bringing about new forms of authority. Transnational Private Governance provides theoretically and empirically informed insights into the interactions between states and non-state actors including domains beyond intergovernmental organizations, conventional non-governmental organizations, and multinational enterprises, covering a wide range of arrangements, from highly formal devolutions of power to lax and informal platforms of interaction between private actors. Contributing to the latest generation of globalization studies, the authors consider the relationship between states and markets as closely integrated and seek to broaden the scope of enquiry by including new patterns and agents of change on a transnational basis. This book will be of great interest to researchers and students of political science, international political economy, economics, business studies, globalisation and law.

Outsourcing state functions and the limits of existing regulatory regimes -- Contract as transnational regulatory governance -- The emergence of a transnational private regime for the regulation of PMSCs -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- 14. Conclusion: Empire through contract: A private international law perspective -- Abstract -- Introduction -- Self-constituting regimes: Private international law's libertarian view of contract -- Possible antidotes: From the undiscovered DNA of contract law to new global forms of legal pluralism -- Notes -- References -- Index

This book examines the role played by business in urban water governance by analyzing the evolution of the global private water sector along with four public-private partnerships in Mexico and the U.S. The local nature of water services often hides the global developments behind the rise of transnational water corporations, which have gone from being local operators to becoming dynamic and powerful actors within an interconnected transnational space for water. This book focuses on the French groups Veolia and Suez, two of the most prominent private actors in global water governance, and the development and adaptation strategies of both companies in the cities of Aguascalientes, Mexico City, Atlanta, and Milwaukee over the past 30 years. Drawing on over 100 interviews conducted with corporate executives, public authorities, and local users of water services, this book moves beyond the simplistic dichotomy of the public-private debate and develops a theoretical framework that analyzes the economic and political power wielded by transnational business actors in global water governance. Not only does the book explain how Veolia and Suez strategically mobilize resources at difference scales in order to expand their global operations, but it also provides a nuanced picture of how state regulation remains of central importance to understanding the dynamics and evolution of the global water sector. Students and scholars interested in business and the environment, including public-private partnerships, business management and transnational corporations, and water governance, will find this book of great interest as will professionals and policymakers working in these fields.

Our paper presents empirical results of a study on the bargaining process of web XML standards in World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) arenas. Processing the 8 main mailing lists, constituted of more than 21000 mails, has led us to analyze the standardmaking process through the bargaining habits and networks of actors who take part in it. It often appears that institutions interacting the most with others directly take part in the writing of final texts, and that firms often intend (and manage !) to play a leading role in this work. In the field of internet, “networked governance refers to a growing body of research on the interconnectedness of essentially sovereign units, which examines how those interconnections facilitate or inhibit the functioning of the overall system.” (Lazer, 2007). It supposes that State actors play a big role in the construction of rules and standards, though they have to cooperate with many other actors through networked organizations. On the contrary, transnational private governance refers to “the ability of non-state actors to cooperate across borders in order to establish rules and standards of behaviour accepted as legitimate by agents not involved in their definition. Non-state actors not only formulate norms, but often also have a key role in their enforcement. Accordingly, the current privatization of rule-making and enforcement goes much further than traditional lobbying in allowing private actors an active role in regulation itself” (Graz, Nolke, 2007). In this pattern, governance is based on interconnections and interdependences which are mostly made of nonsovereign units, and public regulation by agencies or so on is reduced to a strict minimum. In our case study, the whole process from the W3C common work to the ISO struggle illustrates the ambiguity of transnational private governance: on the one hand, competition between firms is only made possible by cooperative work. On the other hand, such a relation shows its limits when firms try to convert web standards into software standards which could become quasi-monopolistic on the mass-consuming software market in the future. Unsurprisingly, the end of 'coopetition' is marked by conflicts and harsh industrial competition, which impose arbitrations and may reveal the need for public regulation such as ISO. This generates both inflexions in transnational private governance and deep transformations in the traditional interagency pattern of standardization.

From the first stock markets of Amsterdam,London, and New York to the billions of electronic commerce transactions today, privately produced and enforced economic regulations are more common, more effective, and more promising than commonly considered. In Private Governance, prominent economist Edward Stringham presents case studies of the various forms of private enforcement, self-governance, or self-regulation among private groups or individuals that fill a void that government enforcement cannot. Through analytical narratives the book provides a close examination of the world's first stock markets, key elements of which were unenforceable by law; the community of Celebration, Florida, and other private communities that show how public goods can be bundled with land and provided more effectively; and the millions of credit-card transactions that occur daily and are regulated by private governance. Private Governance ultimately argues that while potential problems of private governance, such as fraud, are pervasive, so are the solutions it presents, and that much of what is orderly in the economy can be attributed to private groups and individuals. With meticulous research, Stringham demonstrates that private governance is a far more common source of order than most people realize, and that private parties have incentives to devise different mechanisms for eliminating unwanted behavior. Private Governance documents numerous examples of private order throughout history to illustrate how private governance is more resilient to internal and external pressure than is commonly believed. Stringham discusses why private governance has economic and social advantages over relying on government regulations and laws, and explores the different mechanisms that enable private governance, including sorting, reputation, assurance, and other bonding mechanisms. Challenging and rigorously-written, Private Governance will make a compelling read for those with an interest in economics, political philosophy, and the history of current Wall Street regulations.

It is beyond the scope of this article to trace the origins of the logics.6 The analysis that follows instead starts from the empirical observation that private governance has evolved to face pressure to accommodate both the logics of control and empowerment. [...] Distributional implications The initial choice of programs to focus on the logic of control has direct implications for the distribution of power, wealth, and regulatory capability; a program's efforts to accommodate the logic of empowerment affect these distributional implications as well (Table 1). [...] The extension of the logic of control to include the logic of empowerment can, thus, affect wealth distribution when the inclusion of more marginalized producers and firms leads to larger market access, the potential availability of price premiums, and learning processes. [...] Pattberg (2006) argues along the same lines that the network structure of the FSC, with its international secretariat, regional offices, and national working groups, leads to knowledge diffusion and an empow- erment of Southern stakeholders as the latter's voice is heard through the national and local adaptation of the international principles and criteria. [...] "Fair Trade" connotes the Fair Trade movement, which is based on a definition of fair trade delineated in 2001 by the Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International (FLO), the International Fair Trade Association (now the World Fair Trade Organization, WFTO), the Network of European Worldshops, and the European Fair Trade Association (Fair Trade Advocacy Office s.d.), and the Charter of Fair Trade.

Develops a new theory of public regulatory interventions in private sustainability governance based on policymaking in the European Union.

The nature of global governance is changing, as are the standards by which we judge its legitimacy. We are witnessing a gradual and partial shift from inter-state co-operation to more complex forms of governance, involving participation by transnational actors, such as NGOs, party associations, philanthropic foundations and corporations.