Rules of Law and Laws of Ruling: Law and Governance between Past and Future 1

Abstract

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the paradox that the binding power of law for governmental authority is simultaneously increasing and decreasing. It testifies to the importance of subjecting to scrutiny complex negotiation procedures and informality, in which unequal participants are forced to compete for their interests. The emerging constellations of governance, shaped as they are by global economic relations, power structures and legal pluralism, regarding their effect on inequality, on legal responsibility for acts of governance, and the role of law in governing processes. History is full of multiple or polycentric constellations of governance and rule-making by non-state actors. Deregulation usually concerns specific fields of governmental activity. Morth provides a convenient ideal-typical sketch, contrasting hard law 'government' with soft law 'governance'. Spectacles of international law and constitutional law mask both the privatization of law-making and the erosion of legal responsibility in many fields of governance.

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