At least for climate change, increased NGO involvement is neither competition withstate dominance nor necessarily signals the erosion of such. NGOs still need governments to provide leadership and create and enforce laws. At the same time, governments need NGOs to help convince the public to change our behavior in order to change the climate. Amidst all the excitement over what governments will agree to in Copenhagen, NGOs are making it clear that deal or no deal their involvement is here to stay.
-- University of Colorado Law Professor Anna Spain (right), in a super ASIL Insight entitled "Who’s Going to Copenhagen?: The Rise of Civil Society in International Treaty-Making." Spain's serving as a delegate for the nongovernmental organization Mediators Beyond Borders at COP 15, the now-under-way U.N. climate change conference about which IntLawGrrls have posted here, here, here, here, and here.
