Public International Law/Actors in International Law/Cities





Authors: Sué González Hauck, Raffaela Kunz "Required knowledge: Link" "Learning objectives: Understanding XY."

A. Introduction
For centuries, cities have played a crucial role in shaping the global economy and international order. Towards the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century, increased attention to 'globalisation' also sparked renewed engagements with the 'Global City' Today, cities are the sites where global issues such as human rights, environmental sustainability, and economic development intersect most notably. A number of international treaties and soft law instruments explicitly recognise cities as important actors in international law. For example, the Paris Agreement under the UNFCC, in Article 7(2) and 11(2), recognises the importance of the subnational and local level. Transmunicipal networks like ICLEI and C40 are playing an active role in committing to the goal of mitigating climate change, thus at least partly filling the gap that inconsistent commitment by national governments - particularly the US - has left. Within the United Nations system, the UN HABITAT programme is specifically devoted to issues of urbanisation and of people's lives in cities. Additionally, cities play a prominent role within the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), SDG 11 being devoted to inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities. Cities are the spaces where international law plays out in people's everyday lives, where international legal rules, principles, and 'soft law' is implemented, enforced, and challenged. Given that cities are also important hubs for social movements, studying cities is of paramount importance for engaging with international law 'from below'.

Despite significant variance in competing definitions of the term 'city', some common characteristics of cities are that they are human settlements defined by a relatively high population number and density, a certain degree of spatial expansion, heterogenous and complex social and economic activities, and multipurpose land use. Some accounts of cities under international law make no significant distinction between cities in this sense and other forms of local governments, which are defined as subnational, general-purpose, territorial governmental entities 'authorized to govern and regulate, in a defined territory, a wide range of matters such as planning, zoning, education, welfare, and business licensing'.

B. The Legal Status of Cities under International Law
Cities are not currently recognised as subjects of international law or endowed with international legal personality. This does not mean, however, that cities are irrelevant to international law, as seen above in the introductory section to this chapter; Nor does it mean that cities could not attain the formal status of a subject of international law in the future.

Further Readings

 * Source I
 * Source II

Conclusion

 * Summary I
 * Summary II