International Institutions as Presented by Joseph Stiglitz Paper Example

Introduction

In a 2002 article (Globalism's discontents), Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz stated: "In the current process of globalization, we have a system of what I call global governance without global government. International institutions provide an ad hoc system of global governance, but it is a far cry from the global government and lacks democratic accountability. Although it is perhaps better than not having any system of global governance, the system is structured not to serve general interests or assure equitable results." The statement as mentioned is heavily weighted and contains more profound insights which boost the understanding of economic law. Stiglitz presents some important issues on global governance and some of the issues and impacts that surround it. This paper seeks to clearly elaborate on some of the concepts presented and provide an assessment of Stiglitz's statement.

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World Trade Organization

According to Joseph Stiglitz, the World Trade Organization (WTO) is one of the international institutions which provides an excellent system of global governance but it, however, does not include the global governance and lacks democratic accountability. The World Trade Organization is the sole global international organization which facilitates the rules of trade between countries (Lester, Mercurio, and Davies, 2018). It contains the world trade organization agreements, which are negotiated and signed by the various world's trading states as approved in their parliaments. The objective of the World Trade Organization is to aid the exports, importers, and producers of goods and services to facilitate their businesses. The WTO plays an integral role in the development of the international economic, legal order as it is a major global organization; hence it qualifies as the international institutions which portray global governance.

The world trade organization is an integral player in international trade regulation. The duties and rights which encompass the WTO law are extensively created making it a legal factor. Lawmaking for the WTO policies go through a complex of regional, domestic as well as international influences. Therefore, understanding the coordinated procedures in the development of the WTO's law is vital towards comprehending its role in the new era of legal globalization. The lecture by the then Director -General of the WTO, Pascal Lamy, stated in a speech that while focusing on the international trade, the WTO organization highly considers the non-trade concerns as well (Lester, Mercurio and Davies, 2018). Pascal presented that the WTO has a vital role in the global economic legal order.

The WTO provisions recognize the existence of the other non-WTO norms and other legal systems around the world. It is active and open to other stakeholders in the international legal system and works together with them to ensure that some laws are enforced. As an added feature, WTO confirms that its integration with the international constitutional order is the legal status and value that it provides to the international standard and global norms that are interpreted in other forums. The WTO organization holds a place in the international economic, legal sector as it is actively involved in the political tenure to work with other foreign companies. Also, the rules they follow in the process of working with global companies make them qualify as a legal factor. It is indicated that there are a few inferences made to the specific global organizations in the World Trade Organization itself. The formal cooperation Agreement guides the WTO in their relationship with other international organizations as it lays down the policies which govern the deals. For instance, the Agreement advocates for enhanced cooperation between the IMF, WTO, and the World Bank. Therefore, the WTO must follow the rules and regulations to ensure that it is useful in its role.

The WTO acts as a mechanism for the evolution of international law, in collaboration with other international organizations agencies, towards providing a robust- organized global community. It admits the limitations of trade, and it recognizes that it is not the only body which can facilitate the benefits or more open trade as people would still trade without the body. It is only put in place, to regulate the trade in countries worldwide. It recognizes that the trade benefits must be accompanied by other policies for it to be effective. The different strategies include the employment policy, education policy, innovation, and research level. The WTO supports these policies to ensure that there are overall trade benefits. Some of them are effective at the country level, but others will only be effective If applied by other specialized agencies. The duty of the WTO encompasses ensuring good governance policies towards the effectiveness of the world trade. However, there are domestic policies for which the WTO has no mandate to perform. The WTO recognizes that they must contribute to the specific know-how in the domain of commercial infrastructure, but they have no regulations on matters like domestic policies.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF)

IMF has evolved since its foundation in 1945 with significant developments in the global economy. Even though its primary objective remains the promotion of international financial and monetary stability, the Fund has effectively adapted to the policies and roles to counter the dynamic developments in the international fiscal and monetary systems over the years. The changes have been gradual, but they recently accelerated as indicated by various global and regional crises where the Fund contributed a large quantity of finances to the members faced with acute difficulties of a balance of payments. It reformed its policies to better its ability in solving the crises. The duty of the legal counsels found at IMF has also been shifting and has been modified to keep up with IMF's evolution. The council not only provides advice on the Laws of IMF but also helps the member states in building and curating an accountable, effective institution towards supporting economic development and stability.

The IMF continues to adhere to the rule of law. This has been prevalent and has remained evident from the time it was founded. The rule of law is a critical aspect towards credibility, legitimacy as well as the effectiveness of IMF as an international institution. It plays a crucial role in enhancing equitable and sustainable growth and financial stability.IMF is a global organization established under a comprehensive treaty, under the Articles of Agreement. The rules as presented in the articles of Agreement are sufficient towards offering a flexible response to the changes in the international economy. The IMF has amended the policies in the Articles of Agreement several times to implement significant policy amendments (Desta, 2017This depicts that the IMF and its member countries recognize that there are limitations to the adaption of the changes. The IMF has to do a vivid interaction of the Article, of which it is evident that it has a good comprehension of the policies. This serves as an important indicator that the IMF has accepted the rule of law and integrated it into their operations.

The legal Department of IMF has a crucial role in providing IM's adherence to the rule of law. IMF has set up a coordinated system which ensures consistency, independence, and continuity in upholding the rule as required by the law (Desta, 2017 Even though there is no mandatory makeup of judicial review of IMF's decisions, the legal department plays an integral role in advising IMF's decision-making components. IMF has to ensure that the decision made by its stakeholder's id per the Articles of Agreements as well as other applicable regulations and rules. The legal counsel is made up of trusted advisors, in house counselors and public policy contributors who make sure that IMF actions are consistent with the rule of law. Following the rule of law would be essential towards ensuring good governance at the IMF since all policies will be well-guided. Following the procedures would ensure that the IMF remains accountable and transparent in all of its operations.

World Bank

The world bank has an extensive role as an international legal factor as its primary goal is to end severe poverty and promote shared prosperity. With this in my mind, it is essential that the World bank sets up policies and rules to guide it towards achieving its objectives. Also, the large funds involved requires that it should highly consider the legal procedures to ensure that it remains accountable on all its dealings. The world bank also has a considerable role in providing justice as it is supposed to be an efficient, accessible and equitable institution. Legal procedures are integral in the World Bank as they ensure that they will sustainably reduce poverty and increase the shared prosperity worldwide. Research findings indicate that the world bank has engaged in development and justice around the globe through more than eight hundred projects over the past 25 years (Faundez, ed., 2016 In all its processes, the World Bank has worked towards ensuring that there are developments and justice administered worldwide.

Moreover, the World Bank has adopted a multidisciplinary approach when dealing with development and ensuring justice worldwide. Part of the bank's portfolio includes support to all countries including the low, middle as well as high-income nations. It is a mandate that it provides aid without any discrimination. As a result, it operates across all the available legal traditions including; the common law, the Sharia law, the customary laws as well as the civil law. In dealing with its objectives, the World Bank has included an extensive network of legal experts who include lawyers, judges, economists, social scientists as well as other experts in the management of the justice sector. The legal specialists are supposed to consider all the aspects that the World bank engages in including, human resource, infrastructure, finance, data as well as information technology.

The world bank has the role of ensuring legal empowerment in the member countries. It is the duty of the World Bank to strengthen and develop the legal aid systems, communal justice as well as enhance paralegal programs to ensure the overall growth of the client countries. To achieve the objective of promoting legal empowerment, the world bank has set up strategies to ensure that it is highly effective. They have established and maintained the mediation and advisory services to the client countries. This is done in the attempt to direct the member countries on some key actions they are supposed to implement to achieve economic development. The World Bank has also developed legal information websites which provide major legal issues that should be considered in hastening the economic development of a particular country. The World bank has generally ensured legal empowerment by developing, reforming as well as circulating the legal information. The legal information provided y the world bank, focuses typically on poverty-related justice issues, for instance, land acquisition, legal identity, displacement, gender-based violence as well as access to the necessities.

Fairness of Joseph Stiglitz's Statement

Joseph Stiglitz's statement that international institutions, for instance, IMF have provided an ad hoc structure of global governance, but is different from global governments, is generally fair. This is depicted by some of the recent happens in IMF which questions whether the IMF has accountability and democracy in its governances. Some of the issues which depict that Stiglitz's report abo...