European and Global Governance

The European and Global Governance Cluster analyses contemporary governance institutions and processes of change beyond the nation-state from a variety of perspectives. Its members study  legal and political processes in the European Union and at the global level. 

The research cluster focuses on the analysis of the post-national constellation in its multiple dimensions. It studies the implications of the increasingly blurred boundaries of the political space for communities and forms of belonging, for the rise of global civil society, and especially for the structures of governance beyond the state. Research interests include, on the one hand, the European Union, in particular the institutional development of the EU, the influence of the EU on core areas of national policy, the role of legal institutions and mechanisms such as fundamental rights and courts in EU policy-making, and the emergence of a European administrative space. Moreover, they include the structure of global law and institutions - the turn towards post-national law, the participation of organised interests in multi-level decision-making, the possibilities of ‘autonomy-protecting’ global governance, and the interfaces between domestic and international authority.

Research Agenda: The Legitimacy of Global Governance