Global administrative law: The Basel Committee revisited

Global Administrative Law is the branch of Global Governance that seeks to provide guidance and structures for decision‐making bodies and international organisations that rely on co‐operation between a range of international actors to achieve various objectives or implement policy agendas. In 2006, Michael S. Barr and Geoffrey P. Miller critically analysed the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. Their article Global Administrative Law: The View from Basel sought to dispel the critiques that international‐law making processes lacked democratic accountability and oversight by offering the Basel Committee’s own processes as a model for international law‐making with greater accountability and legitimacy.  This article examines the Basel Committee since Barr and Miller’s 2006 article, in light of the global financial crisis and the development of ‘Basel III’. It will seek to determine whether the processes described by Barr and Miller proved to be effective, and if Global Administrative Legal theory is appropriately applied to the Basel Committee. Finally, the article will ask whether the Basel Committee still serves as a model for international law‐making with greater accountability and legitimacy, or if more work is needed to fulfill this model.