In this article I discuss output legitimacy as a category of normative analysis of international organizations (IOs). I … first take issue with the widespread view that output legitimacy is just a synonym for organizational effectiveness or … efficiency, and unrelated to democracy. Against this view, I argue that output legitimacy has an important democratic dimension …

, including state law. In this context, legitimacy and reactivity are contingent to their cycle of production and implementation … of legitimacy become entrenched in institutional practices and legal decision-making processes. The article concludes …