International Institutions and Global (Dis-)order: Fragmentation, Regime Complexity, and Norm Collisions

Global governance is marked by an increasing institutional density which creates coordination problems and conflict potential. Within and across issue areas, international institutions compete for regulatory primacy. Moreover, their substantive overlaps and multiple memberships are exploited by states to pursue their interests (Contested Multilateralism). This Section brings together scholars working at the intersection of international law and international relations (IR) to study various aspects of these pervasive phenomena. Panels address questions ranging from the reasons for the emergence or creation of institutional overlaps via the responses to norm collisions occurring in this context to the effects that overlaps and conflicts between international institutions have for the global order. The Section covers a broad range of theoretical perspectives and empirical orientations, reflecting the variety of approaches and emphases in this field.