REVIEW ARTICLE: Between Law and Language: When Constitutionalism Goes Plural in a Globalising World
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.2010.00822.x |
| Date | 01 September 2010 |
| Author | Ming‐Sung Kuo |
| Published date | 01 September 2010 |
REVIEWARTICLE
Between Law and Language: When Constitutionalism
Goes Plural in a GlobalisingWorld
Ming-Sung Kuo
n
Je¡rey L. Duno¡ and Joel P.Trachtman (eds), Ruling the World? Constitutionalism,
International Law, and Global Governance,Cambridge and New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2009,414pp, pb d19. 9 9.
Riding the wave of globalisation, discussionson the ‘the juridi¢cation of the new
world order’ have spread through academic ci rcle s.
1
Law is now expected to reign
in international relations that used to be conducted according to the realist logic
of power and interest.
2
Although the new legalised world order envisioned by
these discussions has been given di¡erent names such as ‘legal and constitutional
pluralism’,
3
‘multilevel governance’,
4
‘societal constitutionalism’,
5
or ‘transnational
government networks’,
6
the commonthread that runs through these designations
is a constitutional version of global governance.
7
At its core is to build constitu-
tional ordering beyond nation-states with an eye to constitutionalising the world
n
Assistant Professor, University of Warwick School of Law; J.S.D., LL.M.,Yale Law School; LL.M.,
LL.B., National Taiwan University. Part of this article expands enormously on a short book note,
which appears in (2010) 23 Law and Politics Book Review 73^77. The author thanks an anonymous
reviewer for their comments and suggestions. Special thanks to Je¡ Duno¡ for his generous opinions
and helpful suggestions on a draft. It is heartily acknowledged that this article bene¢ts greatly from
discussions with Hui-WenChe n.Any errors are the author’s responsibility.
1See J. L. Cohen, ‘Whose Sovereignty? EmpireVersus International Law’(2004) 18 Ethics& Inter-
national A¡airs 1, 2. See also J. L. Goldstein et al (eds), Legalization a nd World Politics (Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press,20 01).
2For the projectof b uilding aglobal rule of law in the development of modern international law,
see M. Koskenniemi,‘The Fate of Public International Law:BetweenTechniques and Politics’
(2007) 70 MLR 1,1^3.For the predominance of national interest in realist international relations
theories, see M. Koskenniemi,The Gentle Civilizerof Nations:The Riseand Fall of International Law
187 0^ 196 0 (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press,20 01) 413^509.
3See N.Walker,‘The Idea of Constitutional Pluralism’(2002)65 MLR 317. See also G.W. Ander-
son, Constitutional Rights afterGlobalization(Oxford: Hart, 2005) 39^151.
4See eg C. Joerges and E.-U. Petersmann (eds), Constitutionalism, Multilevel Trade Governance and
SocialRegulation (OxfordHart, 2006); I. Pernice,‘TheTreatyof Lisbon:Multilevel Constitution-
alism in Action’(2009)15 ColumbiaJournalof EuropeanLaw 349; S. Picciotto,‘Constitutionalizing
Multilevel Governance?’(2008) 6 International Journal of Constitutional Law 457.
5See G. Teubner, ‘Fragmented Foundations: Societal Constitutionalism beyond the Nation State’
in P. Dobner and M. Loughlin (eds),TheTwilightof Constitutionalism? (Oxford: OxfordUniversity
Press, 2010); G. Teubner, ‘Societal Constitutionalism: Alternatives to State-Centred Constitu-
tional Theory’ in C. Joerges et al. (ed s),Transnational Governance and Constitutionalism (Oxford:
Hart, 2004).
6See A.-M. Slaughter, ANewWorldOrder(Princeton, NJ: Princeton UniversityPress, 200 4) 8.
7See Cohen, n 1 above,1^11.See alsoTransnational Governance and Constitutionalism,n5above;K.-H.
Ladeur (ed), Public Governance i n the Age of Globalizatio n (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004); D. Held,
Democracy and the Global Order: From the Modern State to Cosmopolitan Governance (Stanford, CA:
StanfordUniversity Press,1995);J.N.Rosenau and E.-O.Czempiel (eds), GovernanceWithoutGov-
ernment: Order and Change inWorld Politics(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).
r2010The Author. Journal Compilationr2010 The Modern Law ReviewLimited.
Published by BlackwellPublishing, 9600 Garsington Road,Oxford OX4 2DQ,UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA
(2010)73(5) 858^882
order in the global era.
8
Echoing these institutional aspirations for constitutional
ordering on a global scale is the idea of global constitutionalism: the normative ideals
of constitutionalism such as the protection of human rights and the rule of laware to
be projected onto the world, governing the nascent global arrangement of constitu-
tional ordering.
9
In the eyes of aspiring globalists, the envisioned constitutional ised
world is a place where Leviathans would be caged by global constitutionalism, bid-
ding farewell to the Hobbesia n international relations of the Westphalian age.
10
Apparently a new era of constitutionalism is arriving.
11
However, the t ransna-
tional parallelbetween institutions and norms in terms of constitutionalism is not
entirelybeyond dispute, posingmore questions than answers as to how constitu-
tional ordering would con¢gure beyond its traditional domain of nation-states.
12
Notably, the idea of conductinginternational relations in accordance with the law
has a long history in modern international law.
13
Despite the di¡erent motives
behind the intellectual movement for the international rule of law and the diver-
gent visions for a new world order, substituting order for anarchy has been the
main th eme in th is movement.
14
Thus, as the latest wave of the international rule
of law movement, global constitutionalism raisesquestions pertaining to the nat-
ure of international law, the culture of constitutional orders, and the future of
global governance.What is the ‘added value’ for the international legal system to
be viewed in constitutional terms? What exactly is ‘constitutional’ about current
global governance? How would comprehensiveness characteristic of traditional
constitutio nal orders ¢gure in an increasi ngly fragmented worldorder? Does glo -
bal constitutionalism simply suggest a global expansion of constitutional democ-
racy or herald a paradigm shift in thinking constitutionalism? Are we entering a
new era of constitutionalism, or instead are we facing the end of constitutional-
ism as we know it? These are the central concerns not only to policy makers but
also to legal scholars and political scientists in the face of variegated proposals
for a global version of constitutionalism. Before jumping on board the globalist
bandwagon, we need to thi nk through these issues so that the idea of global
8See eg D.J. Elazar, ConstitutionalizingGlobalization:The PostmodernRevivalof Confederal Arrangements
(Lanham, MD: Rowman and Little¢eld, 1998); C.Walter,‘Constitutionalizing (Inter)national
Governance:Possibilities for and Limits to the Development of an International Constitutional
Law’(2002)4 4 GermanYearbook of InternationalLaw 17 0.
9See N. Tsagourias (ed),TransnationalConstitutionalism:International and European Perspectives (Cam-
bridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 2007); A. Peters, ‘The Merits of Global Constitutionalism’
(2009) 16Indiana Journal of GlobalL egalStudies 39 7.
10 See generally R. St.J. MacDonald and D.M.Johnston (eds),TowardsWorld Constitutionalism: Issues
in the Legal Ordering of theWorld Community (Leiden: Martinus Nijho¡, 2005). See also R.A. Falk
et al,‘GlobalCon stitutionalism andWorldOrder’ in R.A. Falk et al (eds),TheConstitutionalFoun-
dationsof World Peace(Albany,NY: State Universityof NewYorkPress, 1993).
11 See eg M. Rosenfeld,‘Rethinking Constitutional Ordering in an Era of Legal and Ideological
Pluralism’(2008)6 InternationalJournal of Constitutional Law 415. Notably, HaukeBru nkhorst traces
the idea of global constitutional ism to the revolutionary changes that began i n the 1940s and were
already observed byTalcott Parsons in 1960. See H. Brunk horst,‘Dialectical Snares:Human
Rights and Democracy in theWorld Society’(2009) 2 Ethics & Global Politics 219, 231.
12 See generallyTheTwilightof Constitutionalism?, n 5 above.
13 See Koskenniemi (2007),n 2 above, 2^3.
14 See Koskenniemi (2001), n 2 above.
Ming-Sung Kuo
859
r2010The Author. Journal Compilationr2010 The Modern Law ReviewLimited.
(2010)73(5) 858^ 882
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