The research area includes research that addresses the interface between global governance, global constitutionalism and world society approaches that overlap in conducting research on international relations. Projects that contribute to this research area are interested in linking institutional constellations in domestic, international and transnational contexts.
The world society approach includes sociologists, lawyers and political science studies of international relations (Albert and Stichweh 2007; Fischer-Lescano 2005). It ranges from the more normatively oriented English School to world society approaches including both Stanford School type structural approaches and Luhmanian concepts of functional differentiated world society (Bull 1977, see an overview e.g. in Albert 2002, Ch. 2). The global governance approach followed the observation of “governance without government” (Rosenau and Czempiel 1992). It is concerned with the balance between civil society and the state as well as with regulatory policy in the absence of government (Zürn 2000, Joerges and Zürn 2005). Work that ensued from this observation has included lawyers and political scientists with an interest in establishing legitimacy through efficient steering and regulation mechanisms. Global constitutionalism begins from the observation that global norms offer less political and legal stability than assumptions about liberal communities would suggest (Finnemore and Toope 2001, Brunnée and Toope 2010, Wiener 2008). As a phenomenon that bears the imprint of stateness, yet which shapes late modern processes of governance that lead beyond the borders of modern states, global constitutionalism presents a theoretical and a conceptual challenge. By moving processes which have been closely related with state-building and constitution-building into the realm of international relations, the implementation of principles, norms and practices that have constitutionally established the basis for democracy and justice, is called into question. Constitutional quality beyond modern statehood raises questions which are of both political as well as legal nature (Cohen 2004, 2008).
Research in this area is interested in contributions critically investigate the increase of norm clashes in international politics despite a steady process of institutional change towards enhanced constitutional quality beyond the state in the 21st century. This the deeper question whether assumptions about liberal communities as the underlying entities that provide the glue for international relations and international law, require scrutinisation. Projects are therefore preferably working with a combination of theoretical and empirical research methods.

Global Constitutionalism – World of Human Rights Democracy and the Rule of Law, is a new journal at the CGG. It is published by Cambridge University Press and the first issue is due for publication in 12/2011 (e-print) and 1/2012 (hardcopy). The journal is edited by Mattias Kumm, New York University, School of Law, USA, Anthony F. Lang Jr., University of St. Andrews, Scotland, Miguel Poiares Maduro, European University Institute, Florence, Italy, James Tully, University of Victoria, Canada (consulting editor) and Antje Wiener, University of Hamburg, Germany and managed by Sassan Gholiagha at the CGG.

References:

• Albert, M. (2002). Zur Politik der Weltgesellschaft. Identität und Recht im Kontext nationaler Vergesellschaftung. Göttingen, Velbrück Wissenschaft.
• Albert, M. and R. Stichweh, eds (2007). Weltstaat und Weltstaatlichkeit. Beobachtungen globaler politischer Strukturbildung. Wiesbaden, VS Verlag.
• Brunnée, J. and S. J. Toope (2010). Legitimacy and Legality in International Law: An Interactional Account. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
• Bull, H. (1977). The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics. Basingstoke, Macmillan.
• Cohen, J. (2004). "Whose Sovereignty? Empire Versus International Law." Ethics and International Affairs 18(3): 1-24.
• Cohen, J. (2008). "A Gobal State of Emergency or the Further Constitutionalization of International Law: A Pluralist Approach." Constellations 15(4): 456-484.
• Finnemore, M. and S. J. Toope (2001). "Alternatives to 'Legalization': Richer Views of Law and Politics." International Organization 55(3): 743-758.
• Fischer-Lescano, A. (2005). Globalverfassung. Die Geltungsbegründung der Menschenrechte. Weilerswist, Velbrück Wissenschaft.
• Joerges, C. and M. Zürn (2005). Law and Governance in Postnational Europe. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
• Rosenau, J. N. and E.-O. Czempiel (1992). Governance Without Government: Order and Change in World Politics. Cambridge et al., Cambridge University Press.
• Wiener, A. (2008). The Invisible Constitution of Politics. Contested Norms and International Encounters. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
• Zürn, M. (2000). "Democratic Governance Beyond the Nation-State: The EU and Other International Institutions." European Journal of International Relations 6(2): 183-221.