宪政的幻象:WTO的“宪法”和国际法的规训

近年来,宪法已经成为世贸组织法学研究的中心话语。三种主流的世贸组织宪政理论,将世贸组织宪法分别理解为由世贸组织的制度建构、一套规范性承诺或者对相冲突价值进行司法调解的过程所构成。其共同之处是认为世贸组织宪政能够引导贸易政治的走向,或者把贸易政治减少到最低程度。然而,困境在于对宪政的呼吁正激发了其试图预先阻止的那类政治纷争。对世贸组织乃至其他国际法领域中宪法话语的祈求,反映了对国际法的现时地位和作用在规训意义上的深切忧虑,旨在赋予国际法以国家宪法结构和规范所具有的权限和权威。但是,这种策略可能自我挫败。应可以设想其他的宪政形式,以促进世贸组织乃至国际法的合法性。国际宪政问题是21世纪国际哲学家所面临的最重要挑战。

In recent years,constitutional discourse has moved to the center of legal scholarship the WTO.The three leading understandings of constitutionalism at the WTO understands the WTO constitution to consist of either the WTO’s institutional architecture,a set of normative commitments or a process of judicial mediation among conflicting values.The leading accounts of constitutionalism at the WTO share an impulse to channel or minimize world trade politics.Paradoxically,however,the call for constitutionalism triggers precisely the contestation and politics that it seeks to pre-empt.The invocation of constitutional discourse at the WTO—and elsewhere in international law—can be understood as a response to deep disciplinary anxieties about the current status and role of international law,and may be a rhetorical strategy designed to invest international law with the power and authority that domestic constitutional structures and norms possess.However,this strategy may be self-defeating.The paper closes by suggesting that other forms of constitutionalism may be imagined,which designed to enhanace the legitimacy of the WTO and international law.