The concept of global governance, which first emerged in the social s-
ences, has triggered different responses in the discipline of law. This
volume contains our proposal. It approaches global governance from a
public law perspective which is centered around the concept of inter-
tional public authority and relies on international institutional law
for the legal conceptualization of global governance phenomena. This
proposal results from a larger project which started in 2007. The
project is a collaborative effort of the directors of the Max Planck
Ins- tute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, research f-
lows and friends of the Institute, as well as eminent members of the Law
Faculty of the University of Heidelberg. Most of the materials contained
in this volume were first published in the November 2008 - sue of the
German Law Journal (http: //www.germanlawjournal.com). We would like to
express our sincere gratitude to the journal's editors in chief,
Professors Russell Miller (Washington and Lee University School of Law)
and Peer Zumbansen (Osgoode Hall Law School, York U- versity, Toronto),
for the opportunity to publish our papers as a special issue of their
journal. The 2008-2009 University of Idaho College of Law German Law
Journal student editors deserve special recognition for their hard and
diligent work during the publication process. At the Institute, Eva
Richter, Michael Riegner and the editorial staff of this publication
series were instrumental in bringing this publication to fr- tion.