Global constitutionalism and international public authority in the crisis of liberal internationalism

This chapter argues that global constitutionalism and international public authority emerged as complementary approaches to the challenges of global governance. Their combined objective has been to identify the exercise of power in the pursuit of public interests by international institutions, and to ensure its legitimacy. The chapter first elaborates the commonalities and differences between global constitutionalism and international public authority by way of a thorough discussion of other approaches to governance phenomena in international legal scholarship. It then sets out the concept of international public authority and the principles of international public law governing its exercise, before concluding on the implications of the crisis of liberal internationalism for both concepts, which calls into question both the existence of a global constitution and the identification of a relevant ‘public’.