Networked Statehood: An Institutionalized Self-Contradiction in the Process of Globalization?

World economy and world science have not yet found a counterpart in a “world state” and probably never will. However, the contours of a global political system have emerged, which fulfils the functions of statehood at global level, but not as a uniform corporative-hierarchical collectivity, instead, as “networked statehood”, i.e. a network of individual states, international organisations and transnational regimes. Relying on social science and legal analyses, this contribution defines such concept both positively in its components, and negatively in its difference from other global institutions. On this basis, two fundamental self-contradictions are elaborated: on the one hand, the contradiction between the autonomy of the network nodes and the autonomy of the network as a collectivity in its own right; on the other hand, the contradictions of various rationalities in the polycontexturality of the network nodes. The problems of network failure resulting from these contradictions are addressed. Despite these contradictions, networking provides considerable advantages for state action: potentially productive transformation of the contradictions into mere internal tensions; opportunities of transversality; new relationships between dynamics and resilience; iterativity as a new temporalised form of collective decision-making. General principles of a future law of networked statehood are then presented in their basic outlines. Such principles build on the fact that network as a new legal form of action is introduced into the realm international institutions. The future law of networked statehood will then be presented using three legal institutions as examples: loyalty obligations, conflict rules for internal norm-collisions, and network liability for negative externalities. Finally, an outlook is given on how institutions of networked statehood could deal with the problem of their democratic legitimacy.