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Welcoming Participation, Avoiding Capture: A Five-Part Framework

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2021

Melissa J. Durkee
Melissa J. Durkee*
Affiliation:
Allen Post Professor, University of Georgia School of Law.
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Extract

What role should non-state actors have in the work of international organizations? It is particularly fitting that this panel is titled “between participation and capture,” because the phrase calls up the conflicting values that animate this question. When we think of non-state actors “participating” in the work of international organizations, we think about open, transparent organizations that are receiving the benefit of diverse perspectives and expertise. We may associate this phrase with process, access, and legitimacy in governance. On the other hand, when we think about non-state actors “capturing” the agenda of international organizations, we have a conflicting set of mental images: we imagine corruption, mission-drift, and the erosion of legitimacy in global governance. Openness is both valuable and dangerous.

Type
Between Participation and Capture: Non-state Actor Participation in International Rule-Making
Information
Proceedings of the ASIL Annual Meeting , Volume 114 , 2020 , pp. 39 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The American Society of International Law.

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Footnotes

This panel was convened at 10:15 a.m., Thursday, June 25, 2020, by its moderator Ayelet Berman of the National University of Singapore, who introduced the panelists: Melissa (“MJ”) Durkee of the University of Georgia School of Law; Igor Barbosa of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Brazil; Hassane Cisse, international development lawyer and former governance director of the World Bank Group; and Nancy Thevenin of the U.S. Council of International Business.

References

1 See generally Ayelet Berman, Participation and Capture in International Rule-Making: The WHO Framework of Engagement with Non-state Actors (Jan. 15, 2020), available at https://ssrn.com/abstract=3592320 (describing the WHO's experiences with non-state actors and responsive reform efforts).

2 See generally Melissa J. Durkee, Astroturf Activism, 69 Stan. L. Rev. 201 (2017) (examining this history).

3 For a further development of these themes, see Melissa J. Durkee, Industry Groups in International Governance: A Framework for Reform, 12 J. Hum. Rts. & Envt. __ (forthcoming 2021).

4 See Dana Brakman Reiser & Claire R. Kelly, Linking NGO Accountability and the Legitimacy of Global Governance, 36 Brook. J. Int'l L. 1011, 1022 (2011) (defining accountability to mission as a duty: “the organization owes fealty to achieving its particular goals or purpose, i.e., its mission”).