Legitimacy of International Institutions
International institutions are based on the multilateral treaties or the agreements among multiple states. States generally enter in the treaties to promote their common aims, and law recognizes the existence of international institutions. Typically, international institutions are established based on the charters that bind the member states together. "International institutions are the set of rules means to govern international behaviours" (Simmons & Martin 2001 P. 194). This definition is very important because international institutions have established set of rules guiding the conduct of member states. Based on the definitions of international institutions, it is revealed that member states are subject to abide by the decision of international institutions. However, there are hot debates among scholars and political actors whether international institutions posses legitimacy on the member states. (D'Amato,2007, Zurn, & Stephen 2010).
The objective of this paper is to investigate the legitimacy of international institutions.
Legitimacy of International Institutions
To remain effective, international institutions have to exercise some form of political authorities over the member states. Buchanan & Keohane (2006) define legitimacy in the normative sense which refers to the right to rule or the right to exercise power over others. Normatively, legitimacy is conferred on an institution because it is widely believed having the right to rule. Under international law, international institutions are legitimate and have the binding forces on the member states based on states consent and the treaties signed by the states. With regard to the customary international law, once a state is a signatory to a treaty, and the practice becomes regularized, state should conceive as having the binding character of law.
International institutions cover wide varieties of multilateral treaties, which include International Monetary Funds (IMF), World Trade Organization (WTO), the UN Security Council, the new International Criminal Court (ICC), and various environmental institutions that attempt to regulate climate change built around Kyoto protocol. Christiano, T. (nd) categorizes international institutions based on the functions they perform. There are regional economic organizations such as European Union that implements economic cooperation of member states. In addition, World Trade Organization (WTO) enhances effective world trade relations among member states. It is widely agreed within the set down rules that nation states must belong to WTO before they could participate effectively in the world economy. To participate in the world economy, a member must accept the intrusive rules posed by the WTO. There are also some global environmental treaties that exclusively regulate environmental matters. The United Nation Security Council sees to the international peace and security, and the Security Council could exercise some enforcement on the states suspected to act against international peace and security. There are other institutions that make rules to assist in the implementation of general treaty of law. In addition, some international institutions exercise judicial functions. For example the International Court of Justice could adjudicate and World Trade Organization has the authority to settle dispute that arises between member states. There are other international institutions such as International Monetary Fund (IMF) that could provide loans to member states in case of economic crisis.
Essential benefits of the international institutions are that they assist in constructing regulatory frameworks and limit the abuse of nation states with regard to the excessive use of sovereignty. Typically, international institutions attach significant consequences to the compliance or failure to comply with the rules being set by these institutions could lead to some sort of enforcements such as economic or military sanctions. Although, many international institutions do not attempt to make use of violence to legitimate their rules because their actions require the consent of states, however, many states have complied with the rules laid down by the international institutions based on the authority conferred on the international institutions.
Hurd (1999) argues that international institutions posses the legitimate power because many nation states believe that they have lot to lose by not accepting the legitimacy of the international institutions. Typically, many nation states tend to accept the legitimacy of the international institutions because of the fear of the consequent of enforcement from the international institutions. For example, Security Council Sanction Committee can blacklist a country for not complying with set of rules laid down by the United Nations. Zurn and Stephen (2010) support this argument by claiming that states are not only the actors in the contemporary international relations. International institutions have gained wider importance in term of quality and quantity. International institutions have gained the status of political authorities and the argument portrayed by some...
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