Informal International Public Policy Making

1. What is Informal International Public Policy Making?

2. TGN characteristics 3. Advantages and Disadvantages 4. Accountability Concerns

What is Informal International Public Policy Making ?

Informality of the actor Transgovernmental regulatory networks : (i) sub-state units; (ii) non-treaty based → lack legal personality/ aren’t

“international organizations”

Notion of the disaggregated state/Anne Marie Slaughter

Informality of the cooperationBased on MoUs, gentlemen's agreements etc.

Informality of the outputGuidelines, standards, best practices etc. : “Soft law” – but have impact

Informality of Operation Range in formality: Secretariat, budget, employees, decision making process, organizational structure

TGN Characteristics

1. What do TGNs do? Information exchange (e.g. INFOSAN, WAIPA)Harmonization/norm creation (Basel Committee, Global Harmonization Task Force etc.)

2. In what policy areas? Financial (Basel, IOSCO, IAIS), Pharma (ICH, VICH, GHTF, ICCR), aviation, competition (ICN),

telecommunications , food (Codex) etc. Mostly economy related.

3. Where do we find them? Within International Organizations (Committees in the OECD, WTO etc.)Bilateral Independent

Advantages vs. Disadvantages

1. Advantages• Technical topics• Flexibility• Soft Power (persuasion, rather than coercion)

2. Potential problems • Implementation • Accountability Concerns

Accountability concerns

1. Domestic accountability concernsAgencies on the loose?

Lack of parliamentary oversight 2. International accountability concerns Accountability of Decision Making Process: Transparency, Lack of participation of external (weak) stakeholders, NGOs, consumer organizationsCapture by industry interests, lowest common denominator? “clubs”: US/EU dominate networks – developing states do not participate/unilateral imposition of guidelines?

3. Solutions? Domestic mechanisms? International mechanisms? In some TGNs, some of these problems have been dealt with, e.g Basel Committee (previously comments only at

implementation stage, now in drafting stage).

TGNs and traditional international institutions

• Should TGNs replace traditional IOs or should they be complementary? (Slaughter, Raustiala)