Global Administrative Law and Global (Multilevel)

It might be argued that these principles, rights and values to be imple-mented through the elaboration of global administrative law are in their essence constitutional ones, and of course the idea of global

35 Consider the comprehensive book of Volker Rittberger and Bernhard Zangl, Internationale Organisationen, 3rd ed. 2003, which lists a great amount of thematic fields – without science.

36 Manfred Lachs, “Thoughts on Science, Technology and World Law”, American Journal of International Law 86 (1992), pp. 673-699.

37 See Armin von Bogdandy/Philipp Dann/Matthias Goldmann (supra note 5), p. 8.

B. Global Administrative Law 25 tionalism cannot be left aside by a concept which is aimed at the strengthening of public law mechanisms in the global sphere. The idea of global constitutionalism³⁸ is indeed focussing upon basic legal princi-ples and structures that are considered to form the foundation of the in-ternational community³⁹. The core of this concept is the recognition of the international community as an entity with legal relevance, ruled by the aforementioned legal principles and structures, and not just as a conglomerate of States and other subjects of the law⁴⁰.

Constitutionalism at global level is not a monolithic theory. A very strong branch of scholars propounding it, do consider the Charter of the United Nations as the constitutive text. Thus, writers like Alfred Verdross and Hermann Mosler in former times⁴¹ and currently above all Bardo Fassbender are detecting constituent elements in the UN Char-ter⁴²: Its constitutional moment after the Second World War, its

38 The discussion whether it is a particularly German concept (Stefan Ka-delbach and Thomas Kleinlein, “International Law – a Constitution of Man-kind? An Attempt at a Re-appraisal with an Analysis of Constitutional Princi-ples”, German Yearbook of International Law 50 (2007), pp. 303-347 at p. 304) cannot be dealt with further here.

39 For a concise overview see Stefan Kadelbach and Thomas Kleinlein (supra note 38).

40 Andreas Paulus, Die internationale Gemeinschaft im Völkerrecht, 2001;

Christian Tomuschat, “Die internationale Gemeinschaft”, Archiv des Völker-rechts 33 (1995), pp. 1-20.

41 Alfred Verdross, Die Verfassung der Völkerrechtsgemeinschaft, 1926 at pp. 12 et seq. and 42 et seq. in particular (on the League of Nations), and on the same line Alfred Verdross and Bruno Simma, Universelles Völkerrecht, 3rd ed. 1984, at VII et seq. and para 374; Hermann Mosler, “The International Soci-ety as a Legal Community”, Recueil des Cours 140 (1974-IV), pp. 1 et seqq.

42 The following elements are taken from Bardo Fassbender, “The United Nations Charter As Constitution of the International Community”, Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 36 (1998), 529. See also Ronald St. John Mac-donald, “The United Nations Charter: Constitution or Contract?, in: id. And Douglas M. Johnston (eds.), The Structure and Process of International Law, 1983, pp. 889-912; id., “The Charter of the United Nations in Constitutional Perspective”, Australian Yearbook of International Law 20 (1999), pp. 205-231;

Pierre-Marie Dupuy, “The Constitutional Dimension of the Charter of the United Nations Revisited”, Max Planck United Nations Yearbook 1 (1997), pp.

1-33.; Thomas Franck, “Is the UN Charter a Constitution?”, in: Jochen Abra-ham Frowein (ed.), Verhandeln für den Frieden, Liber Amicorum Tono Eitel, 2003, pp. 95-106.

B. Global Administrative Law 26

tional framework, its rules on membership, its hierarchical position (Article 103)⁴³, its stability against revision, its designation (“Charter”

instead of treaty or instrument), its role in developing international law and finally its universality. Others are considering the entire interna-tional law as the basis for internainterna-tional constituinterna-tionalism⁴⁴, while still others are stressing the importance of constitutionalising single fields of international law such as international economic law above all⁴⁵. More or less common to all these approaches is the elaboration of the consti-tutional elements in the field of international law: All authors detect common values, found primarily in the most important human rights but also in central principles and rules of international law (the prohibi-tion of the use of military force, above all)⁴⁶, as well as institutional structures which can be developed alongside the classical three-partite differentiation of legislature, executive and judiciary⁴⁷.

Global constitutionalism is not a concept beyond contestation. The strongest opposition is formulated because it necessitates the separation between the ideas of constitution and the State. This is still a highly controversial point⁴⁸. Although said separation can be achieved by rec-ognising differences and divergences within the notion of “constitu-tion” itself – the constitution of a State may be a different matter com-pared to the constitutionalist picture of a multilevel system or the world

43 Stefan Kadelbach and Thomas Kleinlein (supra note 38), at pp. 317 et seq.

44 For an overview cf. Christian Walter and Matthias Ruffert, Institutionali-siertes Völkerrecht, 2009, para. 63.

45 Cf. Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann, Constitutional functions and constitutional problems of international economic law, 1991; Peter-Tobias Stoll, “Freihandel und Verfassung”, Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völker-recht 57 (1997), pp. 83-146; Markus Krajewski, Verfassungsperspektiven und Legitimation des Rechts der Welthandelsorganisation, 2001.

46 Cf. only Bardo Fassbender, “Der Schutz der Menschenrechte als zentraler Inhalt des völkerrechtlichen Gemeinwohls”, Europäische Grundrechte-Zeit-schrift 30 (2003), pp. 1-15.

47 For an overarching approach cf. Christoph Möllers, Gewaltengliederung, 2005.

48 Cf. only Rainer Wahl, “Konstitutionalisierung – Leitbegriff oder Aller-weltsbegriff?”, in: Carl-Eugen Eberle (ed.), Festschrift Winfried Brohm, 2002, pp. 191-207 at p. 198. Cf. also the critical assessment by Jan Klabbers, “Consti-tutionalism Lite”, International Organization Law Review 1 (2004), pp. 31-58.

B. Global Administrative Law 27 at large – it cannot be denied that the difficulty remains that the idea of a constitution which has grown over centuries shall not be flawed⁴⁹. On the basis of its theoretical diversity and bearing in mind the afore-mentioned caveat, the constitutionalist line in developing international law can be integrated into the concept of global administrative law. The constitutional argumentation provides the link between administrative mechanisms and core public values of public international law as well as a framework for legal institutional analysis. In this respect, global con-stitutionalism shall be taken up in the analysis of the international gov-ernance of science for two reasons: First, it offers the methodological opportunity to cope with the variety of institutional and regulatory lev-els following the idea of multilevel constitutionalism which integrates the State into a more extensive constitutional field⁵⁰. Multilevel consti-tutionalism is a common theory to analyse European Union law, as will become apparent in the analysis of EU research policy (below D. III.

2.). Another reason for taking up the constitutionalist view is its focus upon human rights⁵¹. It is one of the central theses of this book that freedom of science as a human right lies at the very heart of the interna-tional governance of science⁵².