UN and International Economic Law: Centrality in A Polycentric System

During the past decades, the world has witnessed a trend of centralisation of power in international organisations, especially the bodies dealing with international economic law. The trend seems to demonstrate a theory provided by E Jouannet, that, running by its ‘international character’, the international organisations like the UN will use its power to enhance its central role in the international legal system, which finally leads to the enhancement of international law. However, the 21st-century international law also experiences the trend of fragmentation, which distributes the power of international organisations into regional and functional regimes who have no hierarchical connection with their international peers. Combined with these two theories, this essay finds that though the UN has become a more active and effective actor in international economic law that it was in the post-war era; but the modern international economic law has grown to a polycentric system where the UN cannot hold a single-dominated position.