Projects / Programmes
The role of transnational private standards in environmental governance
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 5.05.00 |
Social sciences |
Law |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| S150 |
Social sciences |
International private and public law |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 5.05 |
Social Sciences |
Law |
transnational law, private standards, public international law, legitimacy, protection of environment, legitimacy, effectiveness
Researchers (1)
| no. |
Code |
Name and surname |
Research area |
Role |
Period |
No. of publicationsNo. of publications |
| 1. |
38797 |
PhD Jerneja Penca |
Interdisciplinary research |
Head |
2017 - 2019 |
109 |
Organisations (2)
Abstract
Transnational private standards (TPS) have emerged, surprised and expanded in the last two decades, governing production processes and supply chains across the sectors and across the globe. Environmental law is not only one among, but a primary field, where transnational private regulation is being displayed. The reasons for the emergence of TPS are various. In some areas, TPS are a response to the cumbersome, slow or ineffective solutions of the public governance and framed as a welcome alternative to ‘traditional’ international public law, such as treaty law. In other cases, private standards establish the tools and processes to meet the requirements of the public norms, operating on an assumption that they complement public law.
Research has analysed many aspects of the TPS, including the question of the interplay between the public and private law. Yet, this literature has mostly portrayed a picture of mutual reinforcement between the two domains and a resulting general progress towards public goals. The literature has largely bypassed the explicit question of compatibility between the emerging private standards and established treaty norms. It has failed to problematize private standards insofar as they not only substitute, but misrepresent obligations of governments.
This project aims to explore the empirics behind the assumption which underpins much of the scholarly literature and a predominant policy view: that TPS are public international law are mutually reinforcing. It will focus on international environmental law, which offers itself as a particularly rich ground for studying potential tensions between public norms and TPS. An empirical study on the role of standards in little explored areas within international environmental law, would not only enrich the research on TPS for another in-depth study. It is arguably going to introduce new substantive issues to the study of TPS as governance tools. The project seeks to answer how to square the corporate need for concrete standards in order to implement environmental obligations with the international public law norms and the diversity of values and ecosystems around the globe. Addressing the identified dilemmas and gaps in knowledge has even more relevance in face of the recently emerging trend of clustering collective standards. A harmonisation of standards is a welcome development from the point of view of reducing the sheer number of norms, and in so far as they increase trade and exports, both having positive welfare impacts. At the same time, harmonization of standards amplifies questions of legitimacy and the relationship between (public) international law and transnational private law.
To answer the research questions, the project will employ a number of established methods in legal discipline but also political science. The work will be divided into four major work packages, focused on theory, empirics, synthesis, and dissemination of work, which will ensure accessibility of the product to scientific communities, policy-makers and citizens. The project is realizable within two years. It will be carried out principally as a candidate’s individual research work, but in relation with relevant stakeholders – students, fellow scholars at the Centre for International Relations with legal, international relations and economic disciplinary background, relevant international research networks and policy-makers. The results of the project will be a series of research papers submitted to the best peer-reviewed international law and governance journals (or chapter contributions to quality peer-reviewed edited collections), presentations of project development and results in international conferences, presentation of the research to private regulators and policy makers through policy briefs, face-to-face meetings or conference presentations, as well as to lay audience in form of Op-eds and international blogs. The project leader also hopes to use part of the budget to or
Significance for science
This project delves into the question of whether the dynamic nature and wide outreach of transnational environmental private standards can be associated and reconciled with the legal force and legitimacy of public international norms. This question has both theoretical and practical implications. The project will result in substantive new knowledge on the nature and extent of the legal and governance role that transnational private standards (should) play in contemporary environmental regime. In 2000 Edith Brown Weiss suggested that "[i]n international environmental law, the most important development for the next century may be the emerging interaction of intergovernmental environmental law with transnational environmental law developed primarily by the private sector and by institutions such as the International Standards Organization.”[1] Although the claim is no longer most recent, the identified question remains an underexplored research terrain, in particular considering an expected further rise of TPS.
Through original empirical research, the project will generate new findings on globalization theory/paradigm, including the actors’ response to the globalization processes. The project strives for excellence in contouring the scope for public international law in contemporary environmental governance, and of the transnational private standards, based on sound theoretical and empirical input. Its ambition is to advance beyond state of the art to positively depict and normatively suggest a relationship for these approaches. In other words, the ambition of the project is to map ways in which emerging trans-sovereign policy proposals (heavily drawing on science and economic actors) might and can co-exist with the traditional understanding of both effectiveness and legitimacy.
[1] Edith Brown Weiss, ‘The Rise or the Fall of International Law?’ (2000) 69 Fordham Law Review 345, 353.
Significance for the country
The practical implication of the project lies in the ability to suggest strategies and policies that would adequately address global and regional challenge of the significant rise of TPS as a regulatory disruption to the state, supra-state and inter-state rule-making. It provides answers to the private sector (industry and NGOs), who are important catalyst of sustainability and sources of real economy, as to how to align with the international or transnational legal system(s) in the field of sustainability. It also clarifies the obligations of governments, who are actively pursuing partnerships with these actors and who have signed up to international treaties. The project is particularly topical in that it considers the impacts of a very recent but significant trend of clustering or harmonizing TPS, which attests of a further consolidated protagonist role of private actors. Coordination in rule-making is an important strategy in fighting potential barriers to trade, but it potentially also discounts a diverse ecological and social landscape.
The project is concerned with the ways of attaining sustainability, which is an undisputed political but also legal goal of the EU (Art 2 TEU). Furthermore, by analysing environmental standards, the project makes a step towards comprehending factors that influence competitiveness of actors in international economic relations. The theme of the project cuts across a number of areas of foremost political relevance and societal concern, namely innovation, public-private partnerships, climate change and sustainable development. In addition, the project it is consistent with the key priority areas of the Work Programme of Horizon 2020, namely “A Deeper and Fairer Internal Market with a Strengthened Industrial Base” and “A Resilient Energy Union with a Forward-Looking Climate Change Policy”. Finally, the value of the project contributes to and interacts with the research agenda of the Centre for international relations, which aims to strengthen the actors in the processes of globalization, with a view to benefit the economy and society.
Most important scientific results
Final report
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Final report
