Administrative self-regulation (“innenrecht”) and global administrative law

Abstract

A new category of “law” is developing, Global Administrative Law (GAL). The goal of this new strand of literature is to capture and embed the discourse about global governance and bring it into the legal realm. One controversially debated question is whether all of these new phenomena categorised as global governance can be called proper law. This paper uses the concept of law developed by Benedict Kingsbury as well as the German administrative law concept to shed some light on the question of validity and weight. Kingsbury distinguishes between these two categories. In contrast, German administrative law distinguishes between internal law (only “law” in exceptional cases but weight attached) and external law (law in the proper sense). A comparison between Kingsbury’s concept of law for GAL and the German approach can therefore enhance our understanding of law in the global space.