Global Constitutionalism

This course compares a range of proposals that have been advanced to promote a constitutional world order. It begins with traditional conceptions of the balance of power among independent “Westphalian” states, then explores arrangements designed to produce alternative forms of constituted international and world order. These include liberal and authoritarian internationalism, collective security through the League Covenant and the United Nations Charter, John Rawls’s Law of Peoples, and various other contemporary models of international law, global governance networks, and global democratization.

In addition to assessing the particular merits and limitations of these visions of world order, the course examines the underlying principles of international politics, ethics, and constitutional design that characterize efforts to establish rules for the globe.