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

"Global justice is one of the most important subjects in law and political theory today. What principles of justice might tell us about the actual practices of the WTO and other international economic institutions is of vital importance to states and their citizens. This volume reflects the results of a symposium held at Tillar House, the ASIL headquarters in Washington, DC, in November 2008 which brought together philosophers, legal scholars, and economists to discuss the problems of understanding international economic law from the standpoint of rights, justice, and economic efficiency. The book makes advances in developing the normative criterion for ecaluation and justifying the international economic legal order"--

This book uses three approaches to examine the different ways to conceptualize the problem of global justice and its relationship to trade law.

The book assesses emerging powers’ influence on international economic law and analyses whether their rhetoric of reforming this ‘unjust’ order translates into concrete reforms. The questions at the heart of the book surround the extent to which Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa individually and as a bloc (BRICS) provide alternative regulatory ideas to those of ‘Western’ States and whether they are able to convert their increased power into influence on global regulation. To do so, the book investigates two broader case studies, namely, the reform of international investment agreements and WTO reform negotiations since the start of the Doha Development Round. As a general outcome, it finds that emerging powers do not radically challenge established law. ‘Third World’ rhetoric mostly does not translate into practice and rather serves to veil economic interests. Still, emerging powers provide for some alternative regulatory ideas, already leading to a diversification of international economic law. As a general rule, they tend to support norms that allow host States much policy space which could be used to protect and fulfil socio-economic human rights, especially – but not only – in the Global South.

This book takes a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the economic fairness problems that societies face as they become increasingly interdependent.

This major new work consists of carefully commissioned original and incisive contributions from leading scholars in the field of international economic law. Covering a full range of topics, the Handbook provides an accessible treatment of the law in each area, as well as a thoughtful synthesis and discussion of related public policy issues from a broadly social science perspective.

This comprehensive Research Handbook offers a comparative overview of the history, nature and current status of social rights at the universal and regional level. Tracing their evolution from rather modest beginnings, to becoming the category of rights responding most accurately to the 21st century’s policy objectives of poverty eradication and equitable resource allocation, this Research Handbook assesses the mechanisms used to enhance the implementation and enforcement of social rights.