Functionalism, the Panel of Recognised International Market Experts in Finance (PRIME) and Epistemic Projects in International Adjudication

Abstract

While international lawmaking has long been a top down approach when seen from the perspective of states and the core narrative of “public international law”; that core, has for some time now been challenged by different branches in lawmaking on the international plane. Thus, for instance, in recent years, the expansion of and increase role of sub branches of international economic law have created a number of epistemic projects in international lawmaking that promotes and advances the narratives, interpretations and construction of international law based on the closed nature of the narrow self-interests of these epistemic projects. A good example of these epistemic projects is PRIME Finance – the Panel of Recognised International Market Experts in Finance. PRIME Finance emerged from an initiative of the London School of Economics (LSE) academic community in response to the global financial crisis and morphed into a global arbitral tribunal under the auspices of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) to render Advisory Opinions for disputes pertaining to complex financial transactions. PRIME Finance has now joined the long list of epistemic projects that shapes the process and development of international law from a bottoms-up approach. This article asks whether PRIME Finance is the last link in the global governance of financial institutions on international lawmaking or just part of a social circle.