Cooperative national regulation to secure transnational public goods: a reply to Nico Krisch

There is no doubt, as vividly highlighted in Nico Krisch’s ‘Jurisdiction Unbound: (Extra)territorial Regulation as Global Governance’, that in certain sectors some economically weighty states seek to take advantage of the international law of jurisdiction with a view to determining unilaterally how particular transnational economic activities are conducted. This same law, however, particularly the jurisdictional obligations provided for among states parties by multilateral treaties, is not only capable of serving cooperative national regulation to secure transnational public goods but in respect of a wide range of activities is already doing so. Rather than a fundamental ‘reorientation of jurisdiction towards the solution of common problems and the protection of global interests’, what is needed is political will and diplomatic agreement to use even further the existing law, especially the treaty-based possibilities that it offers, to these ends.