Transnational Network Authority and the Question of Grounding

The structure of the global governance system has undergone significant changes in the past few years. From a system governed primarily by intergovernmental institutions and multilateral treaties, it has metamorphosed into a hybrid field in which a plethora of public, private, and semi-public institutions interact in various ways. In this article, I focus on the increasingly important role of private transnational regulatory regimes (PTRs). I argue that the authority of PTRs emerges from (and is grounded by) their embeddedness in a dense web of ties with other PTRs. The model of network authority challenges the orthodox, hierarchical view of legal authority and contributes to the more general philosophical debate regarding the concept of grounding.