Private standards or market standards: in search for legitimacy and accountability in the international trading system

Abstract

In the last decades, many have discussed the impacts of globalization and the spread of a new phenomenon that comes with it – global governance, which means multiplication of international actors, proliferation of distinct norms and manifestation of different concerns from such a multiplicity of ‘regulators’ and ‘regulation’. Multilateral and governmental initiatives have been incapable of addressing these global challenges that have spread with the ‘emergence of new non-state market regulatory initiatives’, which are aimed at governing ‘production, production process and supply chains across the globe according to a set of non-governmental private standards’ – rules that regard different and complex issues, such as food safety, environmental protection, labor conditions, human rights protection and others.