Hidden figures: how legal experts influence the design of international institutions.

ABSTRACT: Whose preferences influence the design of international institutions? Scholarship on the legalization of international politics and creation of international legal institutions largely adopts a state-centric perspective. Existing accounts, however, fail to recognize how states often delegate authority over institutional design tasks to independent legal experts whose preferences may diverge from those of states. We develop a principal-agent (PA) framework for theorizing relations between states (collective principals) and legal actors (agents) in the design process, and for explaining how legal actors influence the design of international institutions. The legal dimensions of the PA relationship increase the likelihood of preference divergence between the collective principal and the agent

SUBMITTER: De Silva N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10899088 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature