Event Date: January 23, 2009 - 1:30 pm
Location: room 4004, 120 University Private,Social Sciences Building,

A talk by Steven Bernstein, Associate Professor of Political Science and Associate Director, Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto.

Registration is not required. This event will be in English.

Do requirements for legitimate global governance vary across intergovernmental and non-state governance institutions and different issue areas? Prof. Bernstein introduces a framework to address this question that draws attention to the social forces and power dynamics at play in determining what standards of legitimacy apply. The framework is applied to the intergovernmental Kyoto Protocol on climate change, and to the International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling (ISEAL) Alliance, an umbrella organization of non-state governance systems designed to develop “best practices” for its members.

Professor Bernstein’s research interests in global governance, global environmental politics, international political economy, globalization and internationalization of public policy and international institutions. Publications include, Global Liberalism and Political Order: Toward a New Grand Compromise? (co-edited with Louis W. Pauly, 2007), A Globally Integrated Climate Policy for Canada (co-edited with Jutta Brunnée and David Duff, 2007) and The Compromise of Liberal Environmentalism (2001) as well as articles in leading academic journals. His current research focuses on the problem of legitimacy in global governance.

This event is part of the CIPS Study Group on Global Governance.