On Holism, Pluralism, and Democracy: Approaches to Constitutionalism beyond the State

The idea of a constitutionalization of international law and international institutions owes much to a long tradition of idealistic international law scholarship. It gained momentum with the end of the Cold War, only to be frustrated some years later. US hegemonic tendencies after 9/11, the unauthorized invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the impasse of the Doha Development Round in the WTO are only some of the factors demonstrating that the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc had not signalled the end of history. 1 These setbacks, however, did not render the academic discourse on constitutionalization of global governance silent, and there is now a burgeoning literature on the subject. Recently, three books have stimulated the discussion: Ruling the World?, edited by Jeffery L. Dunoff and Joel P. Trachtman, 2 and the two books under review. Although The Constitutionalization of International Law, authored by Jan Klabbers, Anne Peters and Geir Ulfstein, 3 and The Twilight of Constitutionalism?, edited by Petra Dobner and Martin Loughlin, assemble voices already prominent in the debate, they do not only represent the current state of research, clearly they advance it.