Societal constitutionalism : alternatives to state-centred constitutional theory

Englische Fassung: Societal Constitutionalism: Alternatives to State-centred Constitutional theory? ("Storrs Lectures 2003/04" Yale Law School) In: Christian Joerges, Inge-Johanne Sand und Gunther Teubner (Hg.) Constitutionalism and Transnational Governance. Hart, Oxford 2004, 3-28. Und in: Ius et Lex 2004, S.31-50. Französische Fassung: Constitutionalisme sociétal et globalisation: Alternatives à la théorie constitutionelle centrée sur l'État. Themis 2005 (im Erscheinen) Italienische Fassung: Costituzionalismo societario: alternative alla teoria costituzionale stato-centrica. In: Gunther Teubner, Costituzionalismo societario. Armando, Roma 2005 (im Erscheinen). Spanische Fassung: Globalización y constitucionalismo social: alternativas a la teoría constitucionalista centrada en el Estado". In: Carlos Gómez-Jara Díez (Hg.), Teoría de sistemas y Derecho penal: Fundamentos y posibilidades de aplicación. Granada: Comares, 2005 (im Erscheinen) und in: Cancio Meliá und Bacigalupo Saggese (Hg.) Derecho penal y política transnacional. Barcelona: Atelier, 2005 (in Erscheinen)und in: Gunther Teubner, El Derecho como sistema autopoiético de la sociedad global, herausgegeben von Carlos Gómez-Jara Diez. Bogotá: Universidad Externado de Colombia, 2005 (im Erscheinen) und Lima: ARA Editores, 2005 (im Erscheinen) Polnische Fassung: Konstytucjonalizm spoleczny: Alternatywy dla teorii konstitucyjnej nakierowanej na panstwo. Ius et Lex 3, 2004, S.5-27

A study on juridification: the case of industrial accidents in nineteenth century Belgium

Juridification is a complex and ambiguous concept, which legal history can help to understand. In the article, the transitions regarding industrial accidents in nineteenth century Belgium are discussed as processes of juridification. It shows the necessity to distinguish between several semi-autonomous social fields of juridification (administration, parliament, justice), each of which is characterized by autonomous evolutions and mutual interferences

Belgian social law and its journals: a reflected history

Through the analysis of the emergence of contemporary social law, Bruno Debaenst stresses the multiple links resulting from the creation of a new field in law and its specialized journals. These milestones underline how actors interact to define and manage an autonomous space in the legal culture in the making. Progressively, the two founding pillars of social law, labour law and social security law emancipated. Thus, journals follow a similar path to become distinct and specialized. Since the end of the nineteenth century, as the author lists the multiple titles, legal practitioners, lawyers and magistrates animate the journals until the Second World War. With the integration of social law in the legal curriculum, these journals received attention of Liège, Louvain and Brussels universities professors. In a way, this analysis documents how legal journals contribute to the definition of legal culture, beyond reflecting it

Taming governance with legality? Critical reflections upon global administrative law as small-c global constitutionalism

The project of global administrative law has stood out from various efforts to tame global governance with the rule of law. By enhancing transparency and accountability, global administrative law is expected to improve the policy output of global administration, giving legitimacy to global governance. In this way, global administrative law evolves into a small-c global constitutionalism. In this paper, I trace the trajectory of global administrative law as small-c global constitutionalism and how the concept of legitimacy is recast in relation to global governance. I first point out that originally embedded in the practice of global governance, global administrative law effectively functions as the small-c constitutional law of global governance, echoing the trends toward constitutionalization. As it takes on constitutional character, however, global administrative law faces the challenges of legality and legitimacy. Turning away from state consent, global administrative law turns to the idea of publicness as solution to its double challenges. My inspection of the notion of publicness in global administrative law shows that the strategy of resting the legitimacy of global administrative law as small-c global constitutionalism on the idea of publicness turns out to be the privatization of legitimacy, suggesting a post-public concept of legitimacy. -- Das Projekt des globalen Verwaltungsrechts sticht unter vielen Versuchen Global Governance durch Rechtsstaatlichkeit im Zaum zu halten hervor. Durch die Erhöhung von Transparenz und Verantwortung, werden mit dem globalen Verwaltungsrecht Erwartungen bezüglich einer Verbesserung der politischen Leistung globaler Verwaltung verbunden, die Legitimität von Global Governance voraussetzt. In diesem Prozess entwickelt sich aus dem Verwaltungsrecht eine konservative globale Rechtsstaatlichkeit. Die vorliegende Arbeit zeichnet den Wandel globalen Verwaltungsrechts in Form einer konservativen globalen Rechtsstaatlichkeit nach und eruiert Veränderungen des Legitimitätskonzeptes in Beziehung zu Global Governance. Zunächst hebe ich hervor, dass globales Verwaltungsrecht, ursprünglich in die Praktiken des Global Governance eingebettet, effektiv als konservatives Staatsrecht des Global Governance funktioniert und damit die Trends hin zu rechtsstaatlichen Strukturen spiegelt. Sobald globales Verwaltungsrecht rechtsstaatlichen Charakter annimmt, sieht es sich mit der Frage nach Legalität und Legitimität konfrontiert. Globales Verwaltungsrecht wendet sich von staatlicher Zustimmung hin zu der Idee von Öffentlichkeit als mögliche Lösung für die doppelte Herausforderung. Meine Analyse der Bedeutung von Öffentlichkeit für globales Verwaltungsrecht zeigt, dass die Strategie, die Legitimität des globalen Verwaltungsrechts in Form konservativer globaler Rechtsstaatlichkeit auf der Idee von Öffentlichkeit aufzubauen eine Privatisierung von Legitimität ist und ein post-öffentliches Konzept von Legitimität nahelegt.

COMPARATIVE LAW AND THE PROCESS OF DE-JURIDIFICATION: THE JOINT-EMPLOYMENT LAW CASE IN LABOUR LAW

The process of de-juridification is, in some respects, ambiguous and paradoxical. While in certain areas, we see a proliferation of detailed legislative regulations, in others, we detect tendencies pointing in the opposite direction. One of the most interesting cases is that of labor law, where both tendencies emerge. Recent reforms in many European countries show a trend towards a relaxation of rules, inspired by the aim to stimulate growth in employment. In this context, the newly-introduced concept of \u201cjoint employment\u201d plays a pivotal role. The process of de-juridification clearly invests labor law, in particular within enterprise networks, where arrangements under joint employment seem to give the parties of a commercial contract the highest standard of contractual freedom. This social phenomenon is not therefore regulated by detailed legislative provisions, but simply through non-specific norms inspired by general goals. In considering several recent reforms of labor law in European countries, in this paper, we aim to determine the real level of de-juridification currently present within traditionally rigid legislative system

Can the 'post-national constellation' be re-constitutionalized

The constitutionalization of the state, the juridification of political power is one of the major achievements in the civilization of modern politics. Can and will this achievement survive the post-national constellation? The state no longer possesses all powers but some of its ruling authority has been transferred to non-state actors. Increasingly, regulations are the result of negotiations and agreements between state agencies and private parties. This, on the one hand, affects democratic legitimacy, since the parliaments are more and more sidelined. But these processes also undermine the rule of law. Such agreements evade the necessary formalization of law as they are rarely publicized. Nevertheless they are necessary to provide public goods. Globalization and internationalization further aggravate this problem. And the constitutionalization of international politics offers no ready-made solution for this problem: The WTO or even the EU both have to rely on the regular means of physical coercion still controlled by nation states. Even the EU is not a union of the people but of its member states, its democratic legitimacy is limited and, above all, its legalization and constitutionalization is rather circumscribed, and that can be attributed to the very same forces which also undermine democratic accountability at the state level. The aspiration expressed in the concept of constitutions and constitutionalization can, therefore, not even be approximately realized on the global level. --

British employment tribunals: from the side-lines to centre stage

Employment tribunals, originally called industrial tribunals, were established 50 years ago in Great Britain and this article traces their gradual change. Originally constituted as administrative tribunals in 1964, they morphed to party versus party forums from the 1970s, but this change did not stop there. Over the succeeding years, employment tribunals moved from a marginal role to a central role in British employment relations, as their caseload has risen, their remit has widened, and as legal regulation has replaced collective regulation. Moreover in so doing, employment tribunals have become less accessible to workers, less speedy and more expensive. They have also become more formal, with legal norms and practices and adjudication by lawyers alone replacing industrial relations norms and adjudication by a mix of lawyers and lay people. As a result, employment tribunals have become juridified. The article concludes by critiquing the basis of employment tribunals which is the self-help/complainant after the event approach, as opposed to state enforcement of statutory employment rights