Cities as democratic representatives in international law-making

Abstract

Cities increasingly contribute to international law-making. There are several reasons why this should be considered a positive development. First, states are unable to take sufficient action to address many pressing global challenges and are not representing all their citizens effectively in international law-making. Second, cities are particularly well suited to address those challenges - due to, for example, their proximity to their citizens or their ability to coordinate transnational action - and are especially able to act as legitimate representatives of their citizens in international law-making. In this chapter, we argue for the normative view that cities should be regarded as democratic representatives in international law-making, operating within a larger system of multiple (public and private) representation. Cities may not claim to exert exclusive international democratic representation - no single type of public institution may nowadays ¿, but they are legitimate to participate in international democratic law-making together with other public and private representatives.