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The institutions at the forefront of the global multilateral order are being challenged by a wave of counterinstitutionalism, unilateralism, and bilateralism, the manifestation of which are reflected by the crisis at the World Trade Organization (WTO) (Hoekman & Mavroidis, 2021). The United States (US) has been at the center of the crisis, having consistently blocked the appointment of judges to the WTO's Appellate Body, effectively making one of the most valuable components of the organization inoperable. To add salt to the wound, the Trump administration called the organization 'broken' and refrained from endorsing the nomination of Ngozi Okonio-Iweala as the new WTO Director General, and expressed its consideration for leaving the WTO (Amaro, 2020; Hopewell, 2021). In short, the Trump administration accused the Appellate Body judges of engaging in unsolicited judicial overreach, making the case that this represents a deviation from the agreements to which member states had signed up to at the inception of the organization (USTR, 2018(USTR, , 2020.The crisis at the Appellate Body offers a relevant and puzzling case for the study of the dynamics of international delegation to international institutions with judicial authority. International courts (ICs), tribunals, and other international organizations (IOs) that have

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Abstract. "What is and what is defined as populism?" In response to this question the best political theories and philosophies have put forward many different answers, that are taken into account in this article. The article affirms the constitutive ambiguity of the concept of "populism" and its ability to unify very different issues. After analyzing some of the implications that populism entails in practice (in particular the political use of fear and the emphasis on the role of the citizens' anxieties because of migratory flows, the spiral of fear and insecurity triggered by terrorism, the role of religions as symbolic repertoires), the article stresses the link between populism and the end of the logic of the principle of representation, specific of the liberal and democratic theories. The emphasis on the role of the "people" in opposition to the political elites is also a feature of populism, analyzed by the author in this article. In conclusion, the author focuses on the legal field: some of the contemporary constitutional theories, in particular the so-called "popular constitutionalism", are discussed. These theories, while polemicizing with those authors who overestimate the role of the Supreme Court, reassess the function of the average citizen in the life of constitutional culture, with the intent of favouring greater political participation and strengthening democratic life.