Trade Measures and Climate Compliance: Institutional Interplay Between WTO and the Marrakesh Accords

This article examines the potential of trade measures to induce more climate-friendly policies, focusing on the relationship between global trade rules and the Kyoto climate regime. At the core of this interplay is the normative consistency of trade-related rules in the two regimes and any hierarchical relationship between them. The stronger clout of the WTO and its compulsory dispute settlement system suggest that issues involving competing claims would be referred to WTO bodies. Such bodies have so far been restrictive regarding the exceptions in WTO agreements to the general ban on embargoes and discrimination. The normative compatibility of the two regimes will also depend on their participatory interplay, specifically how they differentiate groups of actors as to rights and obligations. Non-members of WTO receive the least protection, and their vulnerability to climate-related trade measures is largely determined by their interdependence with states that consider employment of such measures. Among WTO members, the findings of a dispute settlement body would presumably differ depending on the status of the target under the Kyoto Protocol. A non-complier with Kyoto commitments would be more shielded than a non-party, because by joining the Kyoto regime a non-complier has exposed itself to regime-internal and less trade intrusive measures that should be exhausted first. A third dimension of interplay is linkage, or efforts to influence the regime interplay. To date there has only been moderate cross-agency coordination, but considerable attention is paid within each regime, including in the Millennium Round of trade negotiations, to the desirability of avoiding conflict between them.     

Institutional interplay and effectiveness: assessing efforts to conserve western hemisphere shorebirds

Bird conservation agencies and organizations can take credit for a long list of transnational policy accomplishments. This article examines one set, a constellation of arrangements developed over the past three decades by those seeking to conserve western hemisphere shorebirds. At the center of this constellation are the US and Canadian national shorebird conservation plans and a cross-border initiative, the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Conservation Reserve Network. We treat these and associated plans, programs, and initiatives as a nested set of institutions, noting that these are operated by a wide assortment of state and societal actors. Exploring the potential of a framework based on Oran Young’s concept of interplay, we analyze the construction of these institutions and efforts to establish effectiveness. Examining activity in three zones of issue proximity, we conclude that shorebird conservationists have responded well to formative interplay challenges. They have made least progress in engaging remote institutions responsible for threats to shorebird habitat. We note, though, that it is important to distinguish between scientific and political levels of interplay work. On a substantive level we conclude that the shorebird community is well-positioned to move beyond generative and programmatic tasks to focus on establishing policy capability. On a theoretical level, we conclude that a framework based on interplay provides a strong foundation for analysis of the forces shaping the effectiveness of informal conservation institutions such as the ones examined.

Environmental Governance: The Role of Institutions in Causing and Confronting Environmental Problems

This article describes and explains in accessible terms major findings arising from the work of the long-term international research project on the Institutional Dimensions of Global Environmental Change (IDGEC). In analyzing the roles institutions play in both causing and confronting environmental problems, the project directs attention to three analytic themes – known as the problems of fit, interplay, and scale – and seeks to illuminate these concerns through empirical studies of marine, terrestrial, and atmospheric systems. IDGEC science has highlighted the pervasiveness of institutional misfits and begun to identify the reasons why misfits often prove difficult to eliminate, even when their existence becomes widely known. Research conducted under the auspices of the project demonstrates the growing impact of national and even international institutions on the effectiveness of local resource regimes. Similarly, IDGEC research has identified reasons why policy instruments that work well at the national level (e.g., tradable permits) are frequently difficult or impossible to transfer to the international level. To make the discussion of these findings concrete, the project has explored the problem of fit with particular reference to the performance of Exclusive Economic Zones, the problem of interplay through an analysis of the fate of tropical forests, and the problem of scale through an account of the limits of emissions trading as a policy instrument in the climate change regime.     

The external-domestic interplay in democracy promotion: a case study on public administration reform in Croatia

In this contribution we conceptualize the under-investigated interplay between external and domestic actors in democracy promotion. We first propose a typology of the instruments and means used both by external and domestic actors to influence reform outputs and then trace these instruments' effects on outcomes, thereby expanding the existing concepts of domestic agency. Although democracy promotion continues to be a rather asymmetric relationship between the “donors” and “receivers” of aid and advice, domestic actors employ a wide array of instruments to manage external demands for reform, including diplomacy, take-over, slowdown, modification, resistance, and emancipation. The article draws on a case study of European Union democracy promotion within two reform initiatives in the field of Public Administration Reform (PAR) in Croatia.     

The interplay of international institutions in Kosovo between convergence,confusion and niche capabilities

Abstract

This article examines the interplay of international institutions in Kosovo and aims at disentangling and explaining the emergence and persistence of this international ‘interim’ regime. In 1999, the UN mission to Kosovo (UNMIK) and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were the leading institutions in the civilian area following NATO's deployment of Kosovo Force (KFOR). Following the failed status talks on Kosovo, the EU's rule of law mission (EULEX) and the establishment of an International Civilian Office (ICO) have been set up in addition for increasing institutional complexity. The article analyses how institutional complexity is emerging and what strategies international institutions are applying when confronted with policy overlap. The paper finds that the emergence of institutional complexity in Kosovo is largely a result of historical lock-in effects. International institutions have developed two dominant strategies to cope with dense institutional spaces. First, they show signs of a functional convergence and a coordinated pooling of resources. Second, institutions have developed niche competences to avoid competition.     

Democracy promotion in EU enlargement negotiations: more interaction,less hierarchy

ABSTRACT

In the integration literature, the relationship of the European Union (EU) as a donor and the (potential) candidates for EU membership as recipients of democracy promotion is described as asymmetrical. The donor is portrayed to have full whereas recipients have moderate or even no leverage over democratic reform what brings a hierarchical notion of active donors versus passive recipients into the analysis. Taking the local turn into consideration, however, this contribution argues that democracy promotion, is better conceptualized as a dynamic interplay between external and domestic actors. It reveals the toolbox of instruments that both sides dispose of, traces the dynamic use of these instruments, and systematizes the structural and behavioural factors that constrain the negotiation interplay. A case study of negotiations over public administration reform in Croatia in the context of EU enlargement shows that domestic actors dispose of leverage that counterweights external leverage and mitigates the implied hierarchy.     

Protection and conservation--TRIPs and CBD: a way forward

Legal context: There is a complex relationship and interplay between TRIPsand CBD, two multilateral agreements adopted to attain inherentlydistinctive objectives. Key points: The CBD/TRIPs issue has been discussed in the WTO since 1996in the Committee on Trade and Environment, and has been on theagenda of the TRIPs Council since 1999. At the WTO Doha MinisterialMeeting in 2001, a Trade Minister made reference to the issuein paragraphs 12 and 19, instructing the Council for TRIPs tolook into the relations between TRIPs and CBD. The discussionin the TRIPs Council has gone into considerable detail witha number of ideas and various proposals have been mooted todeal with the same. Practical significance: This paper attempts to discuss and analyse the areas of possibleconflict and reasons for such conflicts. It also seeks to gainan insight into the thought-process of the various stakeholders,then discusses alternative courses of action, and attempts tochart the way forward.     

全球化背景下国际法律制度的互动分析

随着全球化的迅猛发展,国际法律制度与国际组织的数量剧增,不同领域的议题交叉重叠,改善"全球治理"的呼吁日盛。在这种背景下,有关"制度互动"的研究命题开始进入国际关系与国际法学者的视野。考察不同的联结点,国际法律制度的互动可以分为"水平互动"与"垂直互动";"功能互动"与"政治性互动";"功利互动"、"规范互动"以及"观念互动"等。同时,国际法律制度互动的构建与维持模式分析也成为必要工作。