International organizations (IOs) play a central role in the development of contemporary international law. However, the issue of democratic representation by (representatives of) member states and/or (representatives of) the many other public or private institutions or entities (such as nongovernmental organizations, multinational corporations, labor unions, or cities) that participate in deliberative and/or decision-making processes within IOs remains extremely challenging. This is even more true of democratic representation by international organizations when these organizations become members of other international organizations or participate as full-fledged participants in other multilateral processes of international law-making. The means to ensure ultimate and effective popular oversight of these representatives and the procedures in which they participate are, in fact, rarely provided—nor, for that matter, is respect for political equality among the peoples of the world and among their citizens within these procedures.
This lack of democratic representativeness in the procedures for adopting international law within international organizations—and in the organizations themselves—is one of the many dimensions of the broader deficit in the democratic legitimacy of international law. Despite its central importance, the more technical issue of democratic representation within and through international organizations is rarely addressed as such. Various specialists in the law of international organizations and democratic theory have been invited to discuss this issue at this conference. The aim is to determine what the concept of international democratic representation should encompass in and of itself and within/through international organizations, and then how international organizations could be restructured under international law to ensure sufficient democratic representation of all those they claim to legally bind.
The symposium will be organized around three sets of questions: representation within, through, and by international organizations. The aim will be to examine, first, through which public and private institutions democratic representation can and must take place within international organizations conceived as systems of multiple international representation (i); second, how, in doing so, the law of international organizations can and must facilitate the institutionalization of these multiple representatives—both public (e.g., cities) and private (e.g., NGOs)—in the first instance and prior to their systematic integration within the organization (ii); and, finally, how representation by international organizations in other international organizations or other international procedures can and should be organized in order to be considered democratic (iii).
Confirmed Speakers
Jochen von Bernstorff (University of Tübingen); Samantha Besson (Collège de France, Paris); Francis Cheneval (University of Zurich); Édouard Dubout (University of Paris 2–Panthéon-Assas); Melissa J. Durkee (University of Georgia); Jacob Katz Cogan (University of Cincinnati); Évelyne Lagrange (University of Paris 1–Panthéon-Sorbonne); Marieke Louis (Marc Bloch Center, Berlin); Terry Macdonald (University of Melbourne); José Luis Martí (Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona); Anne Peters (Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Public Law, Heidelberg); Philip Pettit (Princeton University and Australian National University); Dominique Ritleng (University of Strasbourg); Pierre Rosanvallon (Collège de France, Paris); Marie-Clotilde Runavot (University of Perpignan).
Confirmed Commentators
Olivier de Frouville (University of Paris-Panthéon-Assas); Charles Girard (University of Jean-Moulin-Lyon 3); Franck Petiteville (Sciences Po, Grenoble); Yves Sintomer (University of Paris 8-Vincennes-Saint-Denis).