Do investors have an obligation to not invest in corporations that contribute to human rights violations? – Even when such divestment neither causes changes in the corporations, nor prevents the violations? Is there a justification of divestment that holds up even in the face of general...

In federal political orders political authority is divided, often constitutionally, between at least two levels so that units at each level have final authority and can be self governing in some issue area

The Constitutional Treaty for Europe (CTE) strengthens federal features of the future European political order, and makes the federal tradition of political thought more salient. Stable and legitimate federal political orders require multiple forms of balancing, and many of the changes in the...

Would a global commitment to international human rights norms provide enough of a sense of community to sustain a legitimate and sufficiently democratic global order? Skeptics worry that human rights cannot help maintain the mutual trust among citizens required for a legitimate political order,...

During the five years that is the life span of SIEPS we have witnessed increased attention to what is sometimes referred to as the ‘democratic deficit’ of the EU. Or perhaps better: an alleged ‘legitimacy deficit’. The Convention on the Future of Europe was in part a response to such...

The full set of EU objectives in the long run require basic and critical research in the social sciences and the humanities (SSH). A European Research Council (ERC) may act for reasons of economies of scale, to alleviate coordination problems, or to obtain public goods or ‘club goods’ for...

Deputy Governor Qvigstad's lecture on transparency in Norges Bank invites us to reflect on the grounds for democracy – and its limitations. In Norway, a number of bodies are kept independent of our elected politicians: the Supreme Court and international courts, a free media, researchers –...

This chapter looks at the New Modes of Governance (NMG) from a normative perspective, assessing their democratic legitimacy. Of the four questions underlining the New Modes of Governance Project, therefore, we concentrate on evaluation, discussing only briefly and at the beginning how NMG...

In order to understand the recent political and constitutional events of Nepal, and to discern feasible and fair ways to move forward, it is essential to consider the complex composition, circumstances and potential for conflicts by and among the many groups and minorities that constitute the...