A common GAL: the legitimating role of the global rule of law

Legitimacy is a topic that stands in the epicentre of every public power. The most
important expression of public power is the public administration. The legitimacy of the administration is the basis of its function. Not all the forms of public power – in the form of the administration - are in the same need of being legitimated. What is necessary is a specific “niveau of legitimacy”
The matters of legitimacy are differentiated on the three levels of the multilevel
system. At the national level, the matters of legitimacy seem to have been solved.
National administrations are constitutionally legitimated through chain delegations running from the people, through the parliament and the government to the administration. They are democratically legitimated.
At the supranational level, the matters are more complex. The european
administration is also democratically legitimated with a “model of dual legitimacy”. The sources of legitimacy are the democratic states on the one hand, and the citizens – as “european citizens” – on the other.