The challenge of transnational private governance: evaluating authorization, representation and accountability

Abstract

The shift of regulatory activities to the international level is clearly visible in the increasing number of intergovernmental organizations and sector-specific “regimes,” or in the progress of supranational political integration above all in Europe. But one can also think of a less visible shift that has led to the explosion of transnational regulation outside the intergovernmental realm. This shift takes various forms, including publicprivate ventures or informal modes of cooperation between public actors (Pauwelyn et al. 2012). It is to the study of an increasingly important particular aspect of transnational regulation outside the intergovernmental sphere that this programmatic note is devoted: 2 regulation by non-state actors, such as NGOs and firms, which are two of the three poles of Abbott and Snidal’s (2009) “governance triangle” (the third pole obviously being the state, or more generally public institutions). Such a development is emblematic of “a remarkable period of institutional innovation in transnational governance” (Hale & Held 2010) (...)