ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the impacts of non-state actors and hybrid actor constellations on global norms, focusing on the phenomenon of nodal governance, how non-state actors wield influence, and the implications for global democracy. Some broad norms such as international human rights law need to be further specified in the form of secondary norms in order to allow the application of legal sanctions. The flexibility of nodal governance as well as its insertion in wider social processes plays an essential role in norm-building processes. Frequently nodes also develop around existing IGOs, as stakeholder's link with each other and/or with representatives/officials of that organization. Similar to the development of national civil society structures that filled the public space that opened with the decay of feudal institutions, global civil society filled the space that arose with the increase of transnational social relations beyond the nation state and formal inter-state relations.
