From Global Administration to Regulatory Heterarchy: An Ontological Critique and a Proposal for Contemporary Public Law

Abstract

The cross-border dimension of regulation, as a phenomenon in the supra-state sphere, remains undeniable. This is what theorists advocating for the existence of Global Administrative Law have termed as “Global Administration”. This work critically examines this conceptualization by employing criteria that the apologetic literature neither develops nor exhausts. Since “Global Administration” fails to meet such criteria, it becomes necessary to migrate to a different model for understanding the phenomenon. One that allows Law to develop a more adequate theorical framework addressing legal regulation in meta-state space. This article proposes the concept of “regulatory heterarchy”, which describes better what is empirically observable and constable, without importing elements of Administrative Law that, despite their superficial resemblance, lack real foundations when examined more closely.