Complex designers and emergent design : reforming the investment treaty system
Date
14/01/2022Metadata
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Abstract
How do actors undertake institutional design in complex systems? Scholars recognize that many international regimes are becoming increasingly complex. Yet relatively little is known about how actors design or redesign institutions amid this complexity. As participant-observers in the UN negotiations on investment treaty reform, we have watched state officials and other participants grapple with this question for several years. To help explain what we have observed, we conceptualize these participants as complex designers – actors who seek to design and redesign institutions within complex adaptive systems. We then formulate three emergent design principles that seem to guide their approach as they aim to create: flexible structures, balanced content, and adaptive management processes. In a dynamic era marked by unpredictability, division, and complex transnational challenges, we believe these concepts may prove to be increasingly relevant in global governance.
Citation
Roberts , A & St John , T 2022 , ' Complex designers and emergent design : reforming the investment treaty system ' , American Journal of International Law , vol. 116 , no. 1 , pp. 96-149 . https://doi.org/10.1017/ajil.2021.57
Publication
American Journal of International Law
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0002-9300Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press for The American Society of International Law. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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