Rethinking global governance, from Geneva, Switzerland

Pressure to act: Covid-19 and the global governance of biological weapons

By Michelle Bentley – Covid-19 will radically change and challenge global action on biological weapons. By demonstrating the extreme consequences of biological warfare (both in terms of public health and social disruption), the pandemic will redefine the current debate and put new pressure on international actors to address the threat through global governance structures.

COVID, Crisis and Change in Global Governance

By Nico Krisch – The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to have serious domestic and international political consequences and to exacerbate existing trends to reshape the landscape of international and transnational institutions. These six trends, when combined, could be dangerous for the structure of global governance as we know it.

Mobility in crisis: can global governance get the world moving again?

By Christopher Szabla – The outbreak of Covid-19 has closed borders around the world, appearing to have deepened a crisis in globalization that has challenged the mobility of people, goods, and services between countries and even within them. Can global governance norms and institutions play a role in restoring or even improving movement in a post-Covid world given an ongoing hostility to them? History provides an indication that such a crisis may be as much of an opportunity to rearticulate an international regime as it is a potential hazard for it.

How will the Covid-19 pandemic reshape refugee and migration governance?

By Kristin Bergtora Sandvik & Adele Garnier – The blog identifies marginalisation, legal distancing and the ambiguity of care as the key characteristics of the Covid-19 pandemic response currently reshaping refugee and migration governance.

Let’s Think Beyond Kyoto, Paris and Social Movements: The Legal Responsibility of Private Actors for Climate Change

By Gor Samvel – In the post-COVID19 world, neither a state-centric Paris Agreement, nor social movements will be sufficient to deal with climate change. The pandemic, most probably to be followed by an economic crisis, presents us with a historic choice about the future diversity and sustainability of our energy sources.

Institutionalizing Subsidiarity in the Reform of Investment Adjudication

By Nico Krisch – If (re)designed based on the principle of subsidiarity, international investment adjudication could supplement rather than substitute or challenge domestic processes.

Business and Human Rights: States are not off the hook

By Jerome Bellion-Jourdan – States are not off the hook in the “Business and Human Rights” agenda:  a key take away of recent events at the United Nations and beyond; a timely reminder of the “smart mix of measures” foreseen by the UN Guiding Principles for States to foster business respect for human rights; a strong call on States to act, along with business, against the background of Kofi Annan’s warning: “if we cannot make globalization work for all, in the end it will work for none.”  

Where is the ILO going with the Centenary Declaration?

By Velibor Jakovleski – The ILO’s Centenary Declaration seeks a reinvigorated role for the organization in the global governance of work. But it could end up as just another example of compromised adaptation to rapidly changing circumstances.