Divergent legal conceptions of the state: implications for global administrative law

This paper posits that there are radically different conceptions of the state at international and domestic law. Colonial law and dualism have, for a time, disguised these differences. The strategies for transnational government most likely to be successful are those that integrate the state in its international and domestic personas. One such strategy is the use of domestic administrative and constitutional law as a channel for fundamental norms. However, in some cases, even this strategy will have to confront how the constituent elements of the state differ under these competing conceptions. Further, and paradoxically, the paper suggests that some of the very strategies enhancing the prospects for transnational government may also threaten the applicability of administrative law values at both the domestic and international levels.