Ruling the World?

Reviews / Votes

"How close are we to having an International Constitution to Rule the World? Penetrating essays in this distinguished, necessary volume offer the fullest answer we have thus far, examining through interdisciplinary lenses how constitutional discourse is reshaping international law, emerging regimes of global governance, and the growing intersection between domestic and transnational constitutions."
--Harold Hongju Koh, Legal Adviser-Designate, United States Department of State; Dean and Gerard C. & Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law, Yale Law School "Does the international system have a "constitution"? What are the implications if it does? These and related questions are central to important contemporary discussions in international relations and international law, and the essays here provocatively explore them from diverse disciplinary and national perspectives. Everyone who seeks to understand developments in the international order will benefit from reflecting on the authors' contributions."
--Mark Tushnet, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law, Harvard Law School "Even for a skeptic towards the idea of couching current developments in international legal governance in terms of "constitutionalization", this book is a remarkable achievement. Its editors have assembled a set of studies which treat this paradigm and its (sometimes all too ready) reception in the literature in a fair, balanced and comprehensive way. Thus, I consider the study of Ruling the World? to be the best way to learn everything necessary about the pros and cons of an influential school of thought."
--Bruno Simma, Judge at the International Court of Justice "This fascinating volume poses the question, Is it useful to think of the sprawling system of global governance as a sort of "constitution" for the world? . . . [T]reaty-based organizations, the authors argue, are more than just cooperative agreements among members; they are also perpetual institutions whose ongoing authority does not require continuing consent from member states. Skeptics will question the extent to which there is coherence and force in today's global rights and laws. But the volume succeeds in showcasing the evolving connections among rights, democracy, legitimacy, and international cooperation."
--Foreign Affairs, G. John Ikenberry, Albert G. Milbank Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University "...an excellent and timely contribution to the scholarship on international law and, in particular, the notion of evolving globalism in judicial institutions and processes, backed up by internationally and nationally mandated instruments. The editors indicate that this is the first of a series of volumes to explore constitutionalism and fragmentation in international law. This is a welcome opener."
--H-REVIEW Digest "Ruling the World? Constitutionalism, International Law, and Global Governance will rightly take its place among the most important contributions to the early twenty-first century literature on constitutionalism at the global level"
-Andrew Lang,London School of Economics