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The role of parliament in international relations and WTO negotiations: the case of Norway

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2004

OLUF LANGHELLE
Affiliation:
RF – Rogaland Research, Stavanger, Norway
HILMAR ROMMETVEDT
Affiliation:
RF – Rogaland Research, Stavanger, Norway

Abstract

According to traditional constitutional theory, foreign affairs is the prerogative of the executive. However, globalisation and the dual process of internationalisation of domestic affairs and domestification of international affairs imply that the days when foreign policy was the exclusive domain of the executive are over. The article explores the effects of globalisation on the role of Parliament in international relations in general, and WTO negotiations specifically, using the Norwegian Parliament as an illustration. Three findings are presented. First, at the international level attempts are made to develop a ‘parliamentary dimension of the WTO’. Second, at the national level the Norwegian Parliament has become more actively engaged in international relations. And, third, the Norwegian Parliament plays an important role in the processes of defining national interests and determining national negotiation positions in the WTO, especially with regard to possible trade-offs between the offensive interests of fisheries and the defensive interests of agriculture.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2004 Oluf Langhelle and Hilmar Rommetvedt

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Footnotes

An earlier version of this article was presented at the IPSA World Congress, RCLS panel on ‘Internationalization of Parliaments – Parliaments in the Process of Globalization’, in Durban, South Africa, 29 June–4 July 2003. The authors would like to thank the participants, especially the discussant Werner Patzelt, and Arild Farsund, Ruth Johnson, Howard H. Lentner, Udaya Sekhar Nagothu, and the WTR referee for valuable comments. The study has been funded by the Research Council of Norway.