Non-State Global Standard Setting and the WTO: Legitimacy and the Need for Regulatory Space

Steven Bernstein and Erin Hannah

Journal of International Economic Law, 2008, vol. 11, issue 3, 575-608

Abstract: The proliferation of transnational social and environmental standards developed by non-state governance systems potentially poses a challenge to international trade law and the legitimacy of the World Trade Organization (WTO). These systems in areas including forestry, apparel, tourism, labour practices, agriculture, fisheries, and food operate largely independently of states as well as of traditional standard setting bodies such as the International Organization for Standardization. In lieu of definitive legal rules on recognition of legitimate international standards under relevant trade agreements [e.g, Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), and Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS)], we identify the legal and political dynamics of standards recognition and find good prospects for these new non-state governance systems to successfully navigate them. Since these systems' standards ultimately aim to socially embed global markets, the WTO's legitimacy is at risk if its rules open the door to legal challenges of states that implicitly or explicitly adopt them. To avoid such legitimacy problems, we propose that a norm of leaving 'transnational regulatory space' for social and environmental standard setting should guide the WTO and its members. , Oxford University Press.

Date: 2008
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jiel/jgn022 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:jieclw:v:11:y:2008:i:3:p:575-608

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of International Economic Law is currently edited by Kathleen Claussen, Sergio Puig and Michael Waibel

More articles in Journal of International Economic Law from Oxford University Press Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().