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

“This book makes a substantial contribution...It is essential reading for all scholars and students interested in the mind-boggling challenges and complexities of multilayered governance for democracy in a world of globalised markets…All the papers, in their own way, offer rich insights from very different angles…For the lawyer, the contributions by political scientists are particularly helpful in understanding the doctrine of legitimacy and deliberative democracy. They assist in advancing legal thinking. The same is likely true for the legal papers, which could assist the political scientist and economist in coming to grips with the complexities of multilevel trade governance.” –  Thomas Cottier, Journal of International Economic Law

“The arguments, findings and suggestions are of such richness in advancing the knowledge of interconnections between various layers and sources of law in balancing trade and market liberalization with non-economic considerations, that the reader will be in the position to increasingly appreciate this project only after repeated reading. And he/she will never be disappointed by the inspiration which the book sparks on the international/trans-national constitutionalism discourse.” –  Luca Rubini, Common Market Law Review, Volume 44, Issue 5