Abstract

Access to Documents as a new World Bank Policy

The article analyses a new World Bank policy on the access to information which took effect in July 2010. The policy constitutes a fundamental and paradigmatic shift in the way international organisations handle documents and their accessibility for private individuals. It is probably the first time that an international organisation has recognised the principle of open access and set up a two-tier system of legal review.

The article discusses the new policy in three steps: A first chapter sets the context. It discusses the reasons that might have led the World Bank to adopt the new policy, referring especially to the basic crisis of legitimacy that international organisations face today. In a second step, the policy is examined in detail, starting with the legal form in which the policy was issued, and proceeding to its content and system of review. The article here draws comparisons to the German as well as the European legal regimes on the right to access of information. Finally, the article ponders the larger meaning of the new policy and proposes a cosmopolitan reading of it. Could it be that the World Bank through this policy reaches out to private individuals, thereby recognizing them as global citizens with a stake in global governance