Inter-Institutional Relations

This project, which is very much connected to the ongoing project on Global Administrative Law (GAL) and the GAL Network, began with the observation that the way in which interactions happen in the global administrative space seem important and under-theorized. There may be some practical pay-offs to studying interactions, rather than institutions in isolation.

At the outset, the idea in throwing the net widely was to capture five types of institutional interaction:

  1. Horizontal: Interactions between institutions that are international actors.
  2. Vertical: Interactions between international and national institutions, where the latter is a member of the international body.
  3. Diagonal: Interactions between an international institution and a national one where the national body is not a member.
  4. Interactions between institutions from different countries.
  5. Relationships between different national institutions in the same country.

Following these five dimensions, we could ask several questions about institutional interaction, including, in particular, questions about: management of interactions, the relationship between interaction and institutional change, the effects of interaction, and the consequences of interaction for law.

The chapters in the forthcoming book (under contract with OUP) on Global Hybrid and Private Governance will explore these questions for a range of institutions.