A report by Jon Holbrook, barrister, and James Allan, Professor in the TC Beirne School of Law at the University of Queensland.

Holbrook and Allan analyse the discourse on global governance that has arisen following the emergence of rights-based treaties — such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights — and demonstrate that such a changing legal and political landscape has wide repercussions for the UK. Global governance has now become an influential principle in the UK’s Supreme Court, and is embedded in Government policy-making. At the same time, questions can be raised over the extent to which it can be democratic and is in keeping with certain principles of the rule of law.