Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xfwgj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-01T14:17:20.590Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

International Composite Administration: Conceptualizing Multi-Level and Network Aspects in the Exercise of International Public Authority

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The administration of the traditional nation-state used to operate as a rather closed system to the outside world. Today, cooperation between the public authorities of different States and between States and international bodies is a common phenomenon. Yet the characteristics and mechanics of such cooperation can hardly be understood using the concepts domestic public law or public international law currently on offer. Conventional concepts, such as federalism, confederalism or State-centered “realism” hardly fathom the complexity of interactions or reflect the changed role of the State, while more recent concepts, such as multi-level systems or networks, seem to encompass only parts of the phenomena at hand. Given this void, we propose to explore the notion of “composite administration” (Verbundverwaltung) and argue that it offers a concept which can combine more coherently the seemingly diverging legal elements of cooperation and hierarchy that distinguish administrative action in what often is called a multi-level administrative system. Even though the concept of composite administration was originally designed and further developed with respect to the largely federal European administrative space, we suggest testing the concept in the wider context of international cooperation. We believe that it offers valuable insights and raises critical questions, even though we do not intend to insinuate any proto-federal prospects of the institutions discussed in this paper.

Type
Cross-cutting Analyses
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 by German Law Journal GbR 

References

1 Eberhard Schmidt-Aßmann, Der Europäische Verwaltungsverbund und die Rolle des Europäischen Verwaltungsrechts, in Der Europäische Verwaltungsverbund 7 (Eberhard Schmidt-Aßmann & Bettina Schöndorf-Haubold eds., 2005). For a similar approach, see Giacinto della Cananea, L'Unione europea. Un ordinamento composito 6, 146 (2003).Google Scholar

2 Armin von Bogdandy, Supranationaler Föderalismus als Wirklichkeit und Idee einer neuen Herrschaftsform 11 (1999); Cassese, Sabino, Der Einfluß des gemeinschaftsrechtlichen Verwaltungsrechts auf die nationalen Verwaltungsrechtssysteme, 33 Der Staat 25 (1994).Google Scholar

3 Britz, Gabriele, Vom Verwaltungsverbund zum Regulierungsverbund?, 41 Europarecht 47 (2006); Schneider, Jens-Peter, Verwaltungsrechtliche Instrumente des Sozialstaats, 64 Veröffentlichung der Vereiningung der Deutschen Staatsrechtslehrer (VVDStRL) 262. For a similar treatment but with his own terminology, see Gernot Sydow, Verwaltungskooperation in der Europäischen Union (2004).Google Scholar

4 On the catalytic role of European concepts for international phenomena, see Ruffert, Matthias, Perspektiven des Internationalen Verwaltungsrechts, in Internationales Verwaltungsrecht 412 (Christoph Möllers, Andreas Voßkuhle & Christian Walter eds., 2007); Slaugther, Anne-Marie & Burke-White, William, The Future of International Law is Domestic (or, The European Way of Law), 47 Harvard International Law Journal 327 (2006).Google Scholar

5 On the differences between European and international composite administration, see Part C. Against proto-federal concepts in the analysis of global governance, see von Bogdandy, in this issue.Google Scholar

6 The notion of “administration” is understood here primarily in its operational (not its organizational) meaning, i.e. focused on activity. On the terminology, see von Bogdandy, Dann & Goldmann, in this issue.Google Scholar

7 Schmidt-Aßmann (note 1), at 7 [translation by the authors].Google Scholar

8 Britz (note 3), at 47.Google Scholar

9 On these issues, see International Law Commission, Fragmentation of International Law, 58th session, General Assembly A/CN.4/L.682; Dan Sarooshi, International Organizations and their Exercise of Sovereign Powers (2005); Christoph Möllers, Gewaltengliederung. Legitimation und Dogmatik im nationalen und internationalen Rechtsvergleich 253 (2005).Google Scholar

10 It is easier to express this very point in German: we focus on Verbundverwaltung, not on the Verwaltungsverbund. Google Scholar

11 On the different dimensions of cooperation, see Part B.II.Google Scholar

12 Cassese, Sabino, Administrative Law without a State?, 37 New York University Journal of International Law and Politics 684 (2005).Google Scholar

13 By composite administration we therefore focus on a smaller range of institutions than the overall project.Google Scholar

14 In German, the terms “Verband“ and “Verbund“ easily express the difference between these two forms of association. In English such wordplay is not possible. On the notion of Verband (organization / association) as a social relationship that is closed or limited in the admission of outsiders and the regulations of which are enforced by specific individuals, see Max Weber, Economy and Society §§ 12, 17 (Gunter Roth & Claus Wittich eds., 1978).Google Scholar

15 Daniel Elazar, Federalism and political integration (1979). For a comparative perspective, see Michael Bothe, Die Kompetenzstruktur des modernen Bundesstaates in echtsvergleichender Hinsicht (1977).Google Scholar

16 See Venzke, in this issue.Google Scholar

17 On the notion and legal contours of level (Ebene), see Möllers (note 9), at 210–218 (2005); Franz C. Mayer, The European Constitution and the Courts, in Principles of European Constitutional Law 320 (Armin von Bogdandy & Jürgen Bast eds., 2006).Google Scholar

18 Bodansky, Daniel, The Legitimacy of International Governance: A Coming Challenge for International Environmental Law?, 93 American Journal of International Law 596 (1999); Wahl, Rainer, Der einzelne in der Welt jenseits des Staates, in Verfassungsstaat, Europäisierung, Internationalisierung 62–66 (Rainer Wahl ed., 2003); Weiler, Joseph H. H., The Geology of International Law - Governance, Democracy and Legitimacy, 64 Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht (ZaöRV) 547 (2004); Wolfrum, in this issue; Zürn, Michael, Global Governance and Legitimacy Problems, 39 Government and Opposition 260 (2004).Google Scholar

19 The concept of multi-level systems made a fast career since the 1990s in political science as well as law. For political scientist's perspective, see Kohler-Koch, Beate & Jachtenfuchs, Markus, Regieren im dynamischen Mehrebenensysten, in Europäische Integration, 15 (Beate Kohler-Koch & Markus Jachtenfuchs eds., 1996); Das europäische Mehrebenensystem (Thomas König, Elmar Rieger & Hermann Schmitt eds., 1996); Marks, Gary & Hooghe, Liesbet, Contrasting Visions of Multi-Level Governance, in Multi-level governance 15 (Ian Bache & Matthew Flinders eds., 2004). For the perspective of legal scholarship, see Thomas Groß, Verantwortung und Effizienz in der Mehrebenenverwaltung, 66 VVDStRL 154–157 (2006); Wahl (note 18); Pernice, Ingolf, The Global Dimension of Multilevel Constitutionalism, in Völkerrecht als Wertordnung. Festschrift für Christian Tomuschat, 973 (Pierre-Marie Dupuy ed., 2006).Google Scholar

20 Hans Kelsen, Reine Rechtslehre 228 (1960). Against a hierarchical understanding of levels, see Franz C. Mayer, Die Internationalisierung des Verwaltungsrechts 320–321 (forthcoming).Google Scholar

21 Andrew Hurrell, On Global Order. Power, Values and the Constitution of international society (2007); Joseph Nye, Soft power (2004). On how these aspects play out in the field of development cooperation, see Dann, Philipp, Grundfragen eines Entwicklungsverwaltungsrechts, in Internationales Verwaltungsrecht 44 (Christoph Möllers, Andreas Voßkuhle & Christian Walter eds., 2007).Google Scholar

22 Another way of defining different dimensions could focus on the central instrument of action: if this is unilateral (e.g. an administrative act, a regulation, a binding resolution, a decision) one assumes that a vertical dimension is at stake, while conventional bilateral or multilateral acts (e.g. contracts, treaties) indicate a horizontal dimension. However, the problem of this approach is that the difference between a horizontal instrument and a vertical one does not necessarily reveal the power relationship between the actors involved. This is easily demonstrated by examples from the law of subsidies, where these are agreed in contractual form, but often on terms of the (donating) State or parallel cases of development assistance.Google Scholar

23 On the notion of networks, see Anne-Marie Slaughter, The New World Order 18–23 (2004); Gunnar Folke Schuppert, Verwaltungswissenschaft 384 (2000).Google Scholar

24 For further problems of the concept of networks, see Goldmann, Matthias, Der Widerspenstigen Zähumg, oder: Netzwerke dogmatisch gedacht, in Netzwerke 226 (Sigrid Boysen et al. eds., 2007); Benvenisti, Eyal, “Coalitions of the Willing” and the Evolution of Informal International Law, Tel Aviv University Law School, Faculty Papers 31/2006; more appreciative of the ambiguities of the notion, Möllers, Christoph, Transnationale Behördenkooperation, 65 ZaöRV 380 (2005).Google Scholar

25 With respect to the European composite administration, Eberhard Schmidt-Aßmann writes of the “triadic structure of roles” (translation of the authors) of Member States - as masters of the treaties, as partners of the Commission and as subjects of control, see Schmidt-Aßmann (note 1), at 7; von Bogdandy (note 2), at 11–14.Google Scholar

26 Herny G. Schermers & Niels Blokker, International Institutional Law § 1688 (2003, 4th ed.).Google Scholar

27 On the special question of host States, see A. S. Muller, International Organizations and Their Host States (1995).Google Scholar

28 Irrelevant is also whether an organization is part of a “family of international organizations”. On these, see Schermers & Blokker (note 26), at §§ 1691–1701.Google Scholar

29 See Szasz, Paul C., The Complexification of the United Nations System, 3 Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law (UNYB) 1 (1999).Google Scholar

30 Bast, Jürgen, Transnationale Verwaltung des europäischen Migrationsraums. Zur horizontalen Öffnung der EU-Mitgliedstaaten, 46 Der Staat 8, 27 (2007); Cananea, Giacinnto della, The European Union's Mixed Administrative Proceedings, 68 Law and Contemporary Problems 197 (2006); Röhl, Hans Christian, Verantwortung und Effizienz in der Mehrebenenverwaltung, Deutsche Verwaltungsblätter 1078 (2006).Google Scholar

31 Salmon, Jean, Article 26, in Les conventions de Vienne sur le droit de traites, 1075 (Olivier Corten ed., 2006); Sorel, Jean-Marc, Article 31, in Les conventions de Vienne sur le droit de traites, 1289 (Olivier Corten ed., 2006).Google Scholar

32 FAO, The Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, Report of the Conference of FAO, Twenty-eighth Session, 20–31 October 1995, Appendix I, also available at: ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/005/v9878e/v9878e00.pdf; see also Art. 11 FAO-Constitution, OECD, Art. 3.Google Scholar

33 See von Bogdandy (note 5).Google Scholar

34 On this tension, see Jan Klabbers, Introduction to International Institutional Law 194 (2002).Google Scholar

35 Schermers & Blokker (note 26), at § 156; see also Schmidt-Aßmann (note 1), at 8.Google Scholar

36 Schmidt-Aßmann (note 1), at 16.Google Scholar

37 Art. 11(1) of the Convention; para. 32 Operational Guidelines 2005. On the UNESCO World Heritage regime in general and on these informational connections in particular, see Diana Zacharias, in this issue.Google Scholar

38 On such reporting duties, see Röben, in this issue.Google Scholar

39 See Friedrich, in this issue.Google Scholar

40 See de Wet, Administration through Promotion and Persuasion: The 1998 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, in this issue (on extensive reporting on implementation).Google Scholar

41 See Fuchs, in this issue (on CITES).Google Scholar

42 Trade Records Analysis of Fauna and Flora in Commerce (www.traffic.org) and International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (www.iucn.org/). On these links, see Rosalind Reeve, Enhancing the International Regime for Protecting Endangered Species: the Example of CITES, 63 ZaöRV 339 (2003).Google Scholar

43 See Schöndorf-Haubold, in this issue; Matthieu Deflem, Policing World Society 124 (2002). A similar role is played by different committees of the OECD. They too serve to compile information and provide statistics rather than to administer (OECD-DAC, see Schuler, in this issue).Google Scholar

44 See Art. 10.1(a) of the Rules on the processing of information for the purposes of international police co-operation, adopted as Resolution No. AG-2003-RES-04 by the General Assembly in 2003.Google Scholar

45 Schöndorf-Haubold, in this issue.Google Scholar

46 See Bogdandy, Armin von, Links Between National and Supra-national Institutions, in Linking EU and National Governance, 24 (Beate Kohler-Koch ed., 2003); Armin von Bogdandy, Informationsbeziehungen innerhalb des Europäischen Verwaltungsverbundes, in II Grundlagen des Verwaltungsrechts 347 (Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem, Eberhard Schmidt-Aßmann & Andreas Voßkuhle eds., 2008).Google Scholar

47 On the role of such experts in international institutions, see von Bernstorff, in this issue; Venzke, in this issue. Expert committees also play a major role in the European governance system, see EU Committees (Christian Joerges ed., 1999).Google Scholar

48 Art. 13(7) and Art. 14(2) Convention, (see Zacharias, in this issue).Google Scholar

49 International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), now called World Conservation Union.Google Scholar

50 International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property in Rome (ICCROM).Google Scholar

51 On the structure in detail, see Pereira, in this issue.Google Scholar

52 Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFCA); Joint FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticides Residues (JMPR); Joint FAO/WHO Expert Meetings on Microbiological Risk Assessment (JEMRA).Google Scholar

53 CAC, Working Principles for Risk Analysis for Application in the Framework of the Codex Alimentarius (ALINORM 03/41, para. 146 and Appendix IV).Google Scholar

54 Pereira, in this issue.Google Scholar

55 On such doubts, see id. Google Scholar

56 Implementation is understood here as encompassing all measures parties take to make international agreements operative in their domestic law. See Catherine Redgwell, National Implementation, in Oxford Handbook of International Environmental Law 925 (Daniel Bodansky, Jutta Brunnée & Ellen Hey eds., 2007).Google Scholar

57 At least according to a dualist approach, see Ian Brownlie, Principles of Public International Law 31 (2003, 6th ed.).Google Scholar

58 Mayer (note 20), at 235. On the limited use of traditional models with respect to the hierarchy between national and international norms, see Ruffert (note 4), at 413.Google Scholar

59 See Benedict Kingsbury, Global Environmental Governance as Administration, in Oxford Handbook of International Environmental Law 72–83 (Daniel Bodansky, Jutta Brunnée & Ellen Hey eds., 2007); Redgwell (note 56), at 929.Google Scholar

60 de Wet (note 40). It should be added that even though the ILO Declaration of 1998 is itself a non-binding declaration, its aim is to promote the legislative implementation of the core ILO Conventions.Google Scholar

61 Two special aspects of such legislative implementation should be pointed out, as they demonstrate the variety of today's implementation regimes. First, in areas of regional integration the implementation can be done by regional (and not national) legislatures, esp. in the EU (see Friedrich, in this issue). And secondly, the international norms do not have to be binding. To an ever growing extent, non-binding norms are agreed on the international level yet domestic authorities deem it expedient to implement them. Many OECD Guidelines can serve as examples (see Schuler, in this issue).Google Scholar

62 In more detail, see Fuchs, in this issue.Google Scholar

63 See Smrkolj, in this issue.Google Scholar

64 The effect depends on the concrete legal relation between UNHCR and the host country in question. In more detail, id. Google Scholar

65 Another example of such direct international implementation can be found in the WIPO's Madrid System of registering trademarks. There, a legal effect of the (international) registration sets in automatically, unless a country raises an objection. See Kaiser, in this issue.Google Scholar

66 Nigoff, Mindy G., The Clean Development Mechanism: Does the Current Structure Facilitate Kyoto Protocol Compliance?, 18 Georgetown International Environmental Law Review 249 (2006).Google Scholar

67 The registration of domain names for the internet follows a similar, though slightly different procedure. ICANN, the global internet administration, does not have the competence to register domain names itself but has contracts with national registries. These can be public authorities or private companies but they are accredited with ICANN.Google Scholar

68 On the legal effect of listing in detail, see Zacharias, in this issue.Google Scholar

69 CITES obligations are implemented through legislative and administrative instruments and by national and international actors (see Reeve (note 42), at 338).Google Scholar

70 Schermers & Blokker (note 26), at § 1739.Google Scholar

71 Reimer, Ekkehart, Transnationales Steuerrecht, in Internationales Verwaltungsrecht 187 (Christoph Möllers, Andreas Voßkuhle & Christian Walter eds., 2007).Google Scholar

72 Friedrich, in this issue.Google Scholar

73 Fuchs, in this issue.Google Scholar

74 Operational Guidelines, para. 169; Zacharias, in this issue.Google Scholar

75 Zacharias, , in this issue.Google Scholar

76 Laurence Boisson de Chauzournes, Technical and Financial Assistance, in Oxford Handbook of International Environmental Law 948 (Daniel Bodansky, Jutta Brunnée & Ellen Hey eds., 2007); Matz, Nele, Environmental Financing: Function and Coherence of Financial Mechanisms in International Environmental Agreements, 6 UNYB 473 (2003); Gündling, Lothar, Compliance Assistance in International Environmental Law, 56 ZaöRV 796 (1996).Google Scholar

77 Such programs are not exclusive to the international sphere. The EU also used a wide number of such programs to help countries to prepare for accession (see Bogdandy, Armin von, The European Union as Situation, Executive, and Promoter of the International Law of Cultural Diversity, 19 EJIL 241 (2008)).Google Scholar

78 See Dann, Philipp, Accountability in Development Aid Law: The World Bank, UNDP and Emerging Structures of Transnational Oversight, 44 Archiv für Völkerrecht 394 (2006).Google Scholar

79 See Zacharias, in this issue.Google Scholar

80 See Arts. 22 and 23 of the World Heritage Convention; paras. 235 and 241 of the Operational Guidelines 2005. Available at: http://whc.unesco.org/archive/opguide05-en.pdf.Google Scholar

81 Cassese (note 12), at 675.Google Scholar

82 Art. III(5) and Art. V of FAO General Rules of Organization; Art. XXX General Rules of the Organization (FAO) and Rule III of RoP COFI.Google Scholar

83 FAO, Conference Resolution 39/57 and 44/57.Google Scholar

84 Dann (note 21), at 17.Google Scholar

85 Mayer (note 20), at 281. On the problems of such references from the perspective of rule of law and democratic legitimacy, see Christian Tietje, Internationalisiertes Verwaltungshandeln 599 (2002).Google Scholar

86 Art. 5(b), 10(c) Fish Stock Agreement; Art. 61(3), Art. 119(1)(a) UNCLOS. See Friedrich, in this issue.Google Scholar

87 Art. 7(2)(b) Convention on the Sustainable Management of the Lake Tanganyika.Google Scholar

88 WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Counterveiling Measures, Annex I, lit. (k), para. 2. See Janet K. Levit, The Dynamics of International Trade Finance Regulation, 45 Harvard International Law Journal 65, 120–121 (2004).Google Scholar

89 A perhaps rather troubling instance from a rule of law perspective concerns CITES. Its Art. VIII(1)(a) obliges the member States to penalize trade in protected species, which has been implemented, for example by Germany, with a dynamic reference in its penal code to the CITES appendices. See Fuchs, in this issue.Google Scholar

90 See (notes 1–3).Google Scholar

91 See (notes 1–3) (including literature cited).Google Scholar

92 Koen Lenaerts & Piet van Nuffel, Constitutional Law of the European Union 665 (2005, 2nd ed.); Franz C. Mayer, Supremacy – Lost?, in The Unity of the European Constitution 87 (Philipp Dann & Michal Rynkowski eds., 2006).Google Scholar

93 For a recent defense of this mechanism, see Advisory Opinion of Advocate General Maduro in the ECJ-Case C-402/05 (Kadi vs. Council).Google Scholar

94 For the principle of proportionality, see Paul Craig, EU Administrative Law 658–666 (2006); for the exchange of concepts between EU and member states, see ECJ, Case C-28/05, Dokter, 2006 E.C.R. I-5431, paras. 71–75; Armin von Bogdandy, Pluralism, Direct Effect, and the Ultimate Say, 6 International Journal of Constitutional Law (forthcoming 2008).Google Scholar

95 Proliferation of international organizations (Niels Blokker ed., 2001); International Law Commission, Fragmentation of International Law (note 9).Google Scholar

96 Schermers & Blokker (note 26), at §§ 1706–1739.Google Scholar

97 See Florian Wettner, Die Amtshilfe im Europäischen Verwaltungsrecht (2005); Craig (note 94), at 57.Google Scholar

98 Bast (note 30).Google Scholar

99 See Part C.V.1.Google Scholar

100 Koen Lenaerts, Some Reflections on the Separation of Powers in the European Community, 28 Common Market Law Review 15 (1991); Möllers (note 9), at 253.Google Scholar

101 On the role of decentralized courts, see de Wet (note 40); on the potential role of the ICJ, see Benvenisti, Eyal, The Interplay Between Actors as Determinant of the Evolution of Administrative Law in International Institutions, 68 Law and Contemporary Problems 336 (2005).Google Scholar

102 On this notion, see von Bogdandy, Dann & Goldmann, in this issue.Google Scholar