Functionalism, constitutionalism and the United Nations

Jan Klabbers

Chapter 33 in Handbook on Global Constitutionalism, 2023, pp 477-489 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter aims to look at the UN from the vantage point of the tension between functionalism and constitutionalism and will make the point that neither is a particularly suitable framework for understanding the UN. In terms of global constitutionalism, the chapter argues that as the UN is not best seen as a functional agency, it must be something else, and that ‘something else’ is that the UN is best seen as the embodiment of global constitutionalism. Whether it contributes to global constitutionalism is a different matter, as is the question what the function of global constitutionalism is. Interesting as these are, the focus of this chapter has to rest elsewhere: on the question whether the UN can meaningfully be portrayed as the personification or embodiment of global constitutionalism, for at least among international lawyers this is not an uncommon position to take, however implicitly often. The remainder of this chapter agrees with the point of departure that there is little to gain from applying a functionalist prism to the UN and will further explore two possible manifestations of a constitutionalist perspectives

Keywords: Economics and Finance; Law - Academic; Politics and Public Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781802200263.00043 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable

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:elg:eechap:20899_33

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Darrel McCalla ().