International Economic Law In The 21st Century

The state-centred 'Westphalian model' of international law has failed to protect human rights and other international public goods effectively. Most international trade, financial and environmental agreements do not even refer to human rights, consumer welfare, democratic citizen participation and transnational rule of law for the benefit of citizens. This book argues that these 'multilevel governance failures' are largely due to inadequate regulation of the 'collective action problems' in the supply of international public goods, such as inadequate legal, judicial and democratic accountability of governments vis-a-vis citizens. Rather than treating citizens as mere objects of intergovernmental economic and environmental regulation and leaving multilevel governance of international public goods to discretionary 'foreign policy', human rights and constitutional democracy call for 'civilizing' and 'constitutionalizing' international economic and environmental cooperation by stronger legal and judicial protection of citizens and their constitutional rights in international economic law. Moreover intergovernmental regulation of transnational cooperation among citizens must be justified by 'principles of justice' and 'multilevel constitutional restraints' protecting rights of citizens and their 'public reason'. The reality of 'constitutional pluralism' requires respecting legitimately diverse conceptions of human rights and democratic constitutionalism. The obvious failures in the governance of interrelated trading, financial and environmental systems must be restrained by cosmopolitan, constitutional conceptions of international law protecting the transnational rule of law and participatory democracy for the benefit of citizens.

In the freshest new international law text in 20 years, Christopher C. Joyner offers a critical assessment of international legal rules in the early 21st century as they are applied by governments to the real world. Looking at concepts and principles, processes and critical problems, Joyner steers clear of an old-time case method approach, preferring to treat issues thematically. He shows the challenges of international law in terms of peace, security, human rights, the environment, and economic justice. Particular features of the book include engaging vignettes, clearly defined key terms, and special coverage of emerging topics including common spaces; international criminal law; rules, norms, and regimes; and trade relations and commercial exchange. Through it all, Joyner maintains an intent focus on the role of the individual in the evolving international legal order.

This introductory textbook explores the key legal principles and institutions that underpin the global economy. Featuring discussion of the economic rationale and social impact of the various legal regimes, Professor David Collins explores the four main pillars in international economic law: international trade, international investment, monetary relations, and development.

The fairness of institutions of global economic governance ranks among the most pressing issues of our time.

This book brings together a series of contributions by international legal scholars that explore a range of subjects and themes in the field of international economic law and global economic governance through a variety of methodological and theoretical lenses. It introduces the reader to a number of different ways of constructing and approaching the study of international economic law. The book deals with a series of different theoretical agendas and perspectives ranging from the more traditional (empirical legal studies) to the more alternative (language theory) and it expands the scope of substantive discussion and thematic coverage beyond the usual suspects of international trade, international investment and international finance. While the volume still gives due recognition to the traditional theoretical project of international economic law, it invites the reader to extend the scope of disciplinary imagination to other, less commonly acknowledged questions of global economic governance such as food security, monetary unions, and international economic coercion. In addition to historically-focused and critical perspectives, the volume also includes a number of programmatic and forward-looking explorations, which makes it appealing to a broad audience with a variety of contrasting interests. Therefore, the volume is of particular interest to academics and postgraduate students in the fields of international law, international relations, international political economy, and international history.

This book assesses the past 20 years of development of international economic law in time for the WTO’s 20th Anniversary, and forecasts the future of international economic law. This edited volume brings together experts in the Asia-Pacific region, from a range of backgrounds, to provide perspectives on many issues that arise from the international economic law experience, focusing on its legal significance and likely impact on multilateralism. The past two decades have seen a significant proliferation of regional trade agreements and a lack of multilateral governance of finance around the world. How to respond to these challenges and how to reform the WTO jurisprudence and process to co-ordinate global and regional mechanisms have become compelling questions for large-scale discussions and systemic analysis. This book provides vital insights into just how to improve multilateral trading governance and to recalibrate international economic law in the twenty-first century.

This book is both breathtaking in its scope and impressive in its attention to legal and institutional detail in situating developing countries in the evolving body of international economic law. Essays in this volume canvas most important areas of international economic law, including international trade law, international financial regulation, the regulation of foreign direct investment and multinational corporations, foreign aid, the enforcement of human rights standards and core international labour standards on multinational corporations, international enforcement of anti-corruption conventions, international competition law, international intellectual property rights, and international environmental law. A pervasive theme, compellingly developed, in most of these papers is the asymmetric structure of international institutions that generate rules in these various areas, in which developing countries are mostly rule takers, rather than equal participants. The current global financial crisis may provide a welcome opportunity for re-evaluating these institutional asymmetries. In any such re-evaluation, this book will provide a veritable cornucopia of constructive new insights.