by Kristina Daugirdas & Katerina Linos[*]
[Full text of this Article in PDF is available at this link]
In the early 2000s, small “coalitions of the willing,” flexible networks, and nimble private-public partnerships were promoted as alternatives to bureaucratic, consensus-seeking, and slow-moving international organizations. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was established as an efficient alternative to the lumbering World Health Organization. The Basel Committee, the Financial Stability Forum, and the Financial Action Task Force were lauded as global market regulators. The Pompidou Group, the Dublin Group, and Interpol were touted as effective police networks in the battle against transnational crime.
We systematically reviewed the evolution of these celebrated networks in the ensuing decades by using a broad range of primary legal sources and, to better understand the consequences of institutional design, interviewed a dozen key negotiators and staff members. We document that many networks have pursued paradigmatic international organization features: they have broadened their membership to include dissenting countries and established or expanded independent secretariats. In addition, many networks have secured privileges and immunities agreements to shield their staffs and assets. Some have discussed or made plans to transform into international organizations.
We argue that existing work on international organizations underestimates the benefits of the paradigmatic international organization form. Because international institutions must engage with multiple audiences, including different ministries in diverse countries, other international organizations, and current and future staff members, the tried-and-true package of features international organizations offer retains surprising appeal.
[*] Kristina Daugirdas is Associate Dean for Academic Programming and Professor of Law at the University of Michigan School of Law. A.B., Brown University. J.D., New York University School of Law. Katerina Linos is Irving G. and Elanor D. Tragen Professor of Law at UC Berkeley School of Law; Co-Director of the Miller Center for Global Challenges and the Law. A.B., Harvard College, 2000. J.D., Harvard Law School, 2006; Ph.D., Harvard University, 2007. We are extraordinarily grateful for the assistance of multiple diplomats and international organization staff members who gave us information on background and requested anonymity. We are very grateful to Karen Alter, Nick Bagley, Anu Bradford, Rachel Brewster, Elena Chachko, Adam Chilton, Curt Bradley, Stavros Gadinis, Julia Gray, Oona Hathaway, Larry Helfer, Don Herzog, Ian Johnstone, Stephen Mathias, Alison Post, Steve Ratner, and Kal Raustiala for very helpful comments. We also thank participants at the 2021 ASIL Mid-Year Meeting, Berkeley Institute for International Studies, Berkeley Law Faculty Workshop, Northern California International Law Forum, and Vanderbilt International Law Workshop. For excellent research assistance, we thank Lauren Barden-Hair, Elena Kempf, Vanessa Rivas-Bernardy, Nicole Waddick, and the librarians at the University of Michigan Law School.