Introduction—Operationalizing Global Governance

In past symposia sponsored by the Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, participants have worked to identify various developments grouped under the rubric of globalization, examining the increasing interconnectedness across borders in technology, politics, culture, and markets of all kinds. They have analyzed the ways in which these forces have disrupted traditional boundaries between domestic and international and spurred the involvement of a range of actors on the global stage, from supranational institutions to corporations to non-governmental organizations. Through a focus on discrete topics, including administrative law,¹ labor,² intellectual property,³ and even baseball,⁴ this work has helped scholars theorize the shift from government to governance.

The Journal's founders, however, in setting out its long range goals, turned their attention not only to the theoretical but also to the immediate. In the introduction to the Journal's first issue, Fred Aman spoke of the need to develop new international and global institutions, and, at the same time, to focus on the specific domestic legal reforms required to respond to global developments in economic and political life.⁵ The goal of this conference, the fourteenth annual symposium of the Journal, is to apply what we have learned about global governance to that project. How does governance really work on the ground as we seek to solve global problems? Conference participants sought to conceptualize global governance not as a theory but as a pattern of practices in operation. Without losing sight of the specificity of particular issues, they attempted to identify common principles or practices emerging across areas of operation as actors involved in global issues sought to promote the common good.

The participants in the Symposium included scholars and practitioners from the United States and abroad. They were: Adeno Addis, Tulane University Law School; Sarah Altschuller, Foley Hoag LLP, Washington D.C.; Larry Catá Backer, Pennsylvania State University Dickinson School of Law; Tim Baines, Dewey & Le Boeuf LLP, London; Michael Ewing-Chow, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore; Faina Milman-Sivan, Professor of Law, University of Haifa; Muna Ndulo, Cornell Law School; Sarah Phillips, Professor of Anthropology, Indiana University; Blake Puckett, Ph.D. candidate, Indiana University Maurer School of Law —Bloomington; Gustavo Ribeiro, S.J.D. candidate, Indiana University Maurer School of Law —Bloomington; Miguel Schor, Suffolk University Law School; Michael Szporluk, Mercy Corps; Robert Wai, Osgoode Hall Law School; and Timothy Waters, Indiana University Maurer School of Law —Bloomington.

The first three panels of the Symposium investigated governance practices in particular settings. The opening panel addressed constitution-making in complex local contexts, examining the practices of local cultural engagement that affect the drafting and implementation of constitutions and investigating the ways in which global networking can promote democracy in local contexts. The second turned to the relationship between corporate regulation and private law networks. It investigated voluntary codes of conduct and other tools that multinational corporations and local businesses adopt in order to promote good governance practices. In addition, it sought to uncover some of the connections between the trade regulatory regime and private corporate social responsibility. The third panel addressed the role of civil society and non-governmental organizations as partners in solving problems of global import, examining the inherent problems of accountability that attend their work. The Symposium's final panel then sought to bridge these topics, considering the general question of how global governance is "operationalized" on the ground.

The first pair of articles in this symposium issue sets the stage for the analysis of governance practices in particular contexts. Brian Winchester addresses one of the most intuitive areas for identifying global problems and their possible solutions, outlining the history and evolution of environmentalism.⁶ He describes the explosion in international environmental agreements, and also the increasing involvement of non-state actors, concluding that their involvement suggests movement toward a more complex form of governance in that arena—a form of governance in which states and intergovernmental organizations are not the only relevant actors. In the second article, Timothy Waters, striking a cautionary note, expresses his concern that discussions about globalization, global governance and the operational aspects...