Global Law

Abstract

An emphasis on “global law” is responsive to the emergence of problems of global scope. The entrenched statist character of Westphalian world order obstructs the development of a robust system of global law. Obstruction also arises from geopolitical factors. Geopolitical discretion thus fills the vacuum created by the inability of international law to respond to the agenda of global problems, and it does so in ways that contribute to widening gaps of global inequality and to the refusal to allow the growth of global law to provide more equitable and sustainable solutions to the material and human rights concerns of the peoples of the world. The future of a peaceful and just world depends on overcoming obstacles to the growth of global law dedicated to upholding global and human interests, which will only happen if international civil society becomes mobilized around the global policy and equity agenda.