Christian Joerges is Professor of Economic Law at the European University Institute, Florence. He is on leave from the University of Bremen where he was a Director of the Centre for European Law and Policy.
Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann is Professor of International and European Law at the European University Institute at Florence and Joint Chair at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies in Florence, Italy. He was formerly Professor at the University of Geneva and its Graduate Institute of International Studies, and legal adviser in GATT and the WTO

This is a book about the ever more complex legal networks of transnational economic governance structures and their legitimacy problems. It takes up the challenge of the editors' earlier pioneering works which have called for more cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary analyses by scholars of international law, European and international economic law, private international law, international relations theory and social philosophy to examine the interdependences of multilevel governance in transnational economic, social, environmental and legal relations. Two complementary strands of theorising are expounded. One argues that globalisation and the universal recognition of human rights are transforming the intergovernmental "society of states" into a cosmopolitan community of citizens which requires more effective constitutional safeguards for protecting human rights and consumer welfare in the national and international governance and legal regulation of international trade. The second emphasises the dependence of the functioning of international markets and liberal trade on governance arrangements which respond credibly to safety and environmental concerns of consumers, traders, political and non-governmental actors. Enquiries into the generation of international standards and empirical analyses of legalization and judizialisation practices form part of this agenda.
The perspectives and conclusions of the more than 20 contributors from Europe and North-America cannot be uniform. But they converge in their search for a constitutional architecture which limits, empowers and legitimises multilevel trade governance, as well as in their common premise that respect for human rights, private and democratic self-government and social justice require more transparent, participatory and deliberative forms of transnational "cosmopolitan democracy".

Section I: International Trade Law: Constitutionalisation and Judicialisation in the WTO and Beyond
1. Multilevel Trade Governance in the WTO Requires Multilevel Constitutionalism
Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann
2. Democratic Legitimacy of Transnational Trade Governance: A View from Political Theory
Patrizia Nanz
3. Dispute Settlement under GATT and WTO: An Empirical Enquiry into a Regime Change
Achim Helmedach and Bernhard Zangl
4. The Appellate Body's 'Response' to the Tensions and Interdependencies Between Transnational Trade Governance and Social Regulation
Christiane Gerstetter
5. Why Co-operate? Civil Society Participation at the WTO
Jens Steffek and Claudia Kissling
6. Participatory Transnational Governance
Rainer Nickel
7. Non-Traditional Patterns of Global Regulation: Is the WTO 'Missing the Boat'?
Joost Pauwelyn
8. Conflicts and Comity in Transnational Governance: Private International Law as Mechanism and Metaphor for Transnational Social Regulation through Plural Legal Regimes
Robert Wai
Section II: Transnational Governance Arrangements for Product Safety
9. Fixing the Codex? Global Food-Safety Governance Under Review
Thorsten Hüller and Matthias Leonhard Maier
10. The Precautionary Principle in Support of Practical Reason: an Argument Against Formalistic Interpretations of the Precautionary Principle
Alexia Herwig
11. Beyond the Science/Democracy Dichotomy: The World Trade Organisation Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement and Administrative Constitutionalism
Elizabeth Fisher
12. Administrative Globalisation and Curbing the Excesses of the State
Damian Chalmers
13. A New Device for creating International Legal Normativity: The WTO Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement and 'International Standards'
Robert Howse
14. The Empire's Drains: Sources of Legal Recognition of Private Standardisation under the TBT Agreement
Harm Schepel
Section III: The WTO and Transnational Environmental Governance
15. Global Environmental Governance and the WTO: Emerging Rulesthrough Evolving Practice: The CBD-Bonn Guidelines
Christine Godt
16. Environmental Policies and the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment: A Record of Failure?
Ulrike Ehling
17. Facing the Global Hydra: Ecological Transformation at the Global Financial Frontier: The Ambitious Case of the Global Reporting Initiative
Oren Perez
Section IV: Epilogue
18. Constitutionalism in Postnational Constellations: Contrasting Social Regulation in the EU and in the WTO
Christian Joerges