By Susanna Cafaro,

Many people react with suspicion and mistrust when they hear the two words global governanceand even worse when they hear about global laws or global constitutionalism. I can understand them. They are afraid of an authoritarian, elitist system, going to limit the sovereignty of states and communities, to suppress self-determination, to flatten cultural identities. A real nightmare. Paradoxically, this is what happens with globalization in the absence of a global rule of law, what happens right now, when the forces of market and the pressure to competitiveness are left alone to govern processes and outcomes.