Commons, Global (Economic) Governance, and Democracy: Which Way Forward for International Law?

Abstract

Millions of people have been depending on commons such as forests, pastures, grazing lands, and fisheries to meet their basic needs for centuries. Because these commons are often left unrecognized, they face the threat of enclosure, which risks depriving peoples in the Global South from their most basic access to essential resources. Legal scholars are therefore called upon to rethink the prevailing system of global governance. Very little has been said about the role that international law could play in the empowerment of communities in the self-management of their resources and in the resistance against enclosure. It remains unclear to what extent international law can require states to recognize the commons as a democratic practice of its own and protect marginalized populations from enclosure and dispossession. This chapter asks the question as to whether international law can be rethought as part of the solution in saving the commons from enclosure.