This paper proposes the concept of a global people’s will as the foundation of the global legal order, thereby, grounding the legitimacy of the international legal order in the will of the global people (as the bearer(s) of global sovereignty). First, I rework the relation between law and sovereignty in John Austin’s theory of law by replacing the “command” of the sovereign with “will”. Second, I argue that Hart’s Rule of Recognition, which grounds legal validity, should be situated in the will of the sovereign. The implication is that the validity of a legal system should be sourced from the will of the sovereign but not from the practices of judges as Hart thought. Applying this to the international legal order, I contend that the validity of the international legal order ought to be derived from the will of the global people.
