This book draws both on previous research and the courses on the subject that I taught at Yale Law School in 2013 and have been teaching at Bocconi University since 2018. Developments in this area over the last few years have confirmed that the initial insight was fruitful, but they have also gradually reshaped the subject. Global administrative law has been receiving more and more attention, thanks to its ability to shed light on the many forms of public power that exist beyond State level. However, international bureaucracies have failed on more than one occasion to meet expectations regarding the management of global policies. New expectations have arisen concerning the protection of the environment, but it is doubtful whether these can be met by litigation alone. While dispute settlement within the World Trade Organization has experienced pronounced difficulties, administrative tribunals have been created within new organizations, and new human rights courts have been established in regions of the world where they had been absent for many years. Meanwhile, there has been fresh criticism of several aspects of global administrative law, considered as an intellectual discipline.
The origin of this book explains its character. This is not intended to be a systematic treatise; rather, its purpose is to provide a better understanding of the principles and institutions of global administrative law, also through constructive criticism. The volume is primarily addressed to two groups of readers. The first consists of law students, who not only need to understand the fundamental principles of this new field of law, but also to understand its complexity. The second group includes general readers who wish to learn how global administrative law differs from other subjects they have studied, and how it can support them in understanding new challenges.
Thanks are owed to many people and institutions in any project of this kind. I have already mentioned my old mentor, Sabino Cassese. I would also like to express special thanks to Jean‐Bernard Auby, Mauro Bussani, Paul Craig, and Alec Stone Sweet for their friendly support and encouragement, and perhaps even more so for their critical remarks: as the old adage goes, amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas. Further thanks are due to a number of university departments and research institutes for having graciously hosted me for weeks of visits and seminars on various aspects of the complex relationship between law and globalization. In particular, I am grateful to the Law School of Aix‐en‐Provence, the Max Planck Institute of Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, and Science‐Po Paris. I am also grateful to the friends, scholars, and students who have been willing to discuss my ideas more informally. They are too many to mention, but I wish in particular to acknowledge the insights gained during the various stages of the work through conversations with Mads Andenas, Gordon Anthony, Armin von Bogdandy, Angela Ferrari Zumbini, Carol Harlow, Marta Infantino, Miguel Poiares Maduro, Martin Nettesheim, and Joseph Weiler. Leonardo Borlini and Martina Conticelli kindly read the manuscript and made helpful comments. The usual disclaimer applies, in the sense that all errors and omissions are mine. Finally, I am grateful to Adrian Bedford for his linguistic revision of the entire text, and to Paola Monaco for ensuring the respect of editorial standards.