Book Review: The Misery of International Law: Confrontations with Injustice in the Global Economy. By John Linarelli, Margot Salomon And Muthucumaraswamy Sornarajah (Oxford University Press, 2018)

Abstract

In this book, Linarelli, Salomon and Sornarajah powerfully show how international economic law is implicated in creating and reproducing misery at a global scale. The problem is not whether international courts and tribunals apply human rights principles appropriately when deciding a trade or an investment dispute. The real issue is about pre-distribution, the rules of the game and bargaining in the shadow of the law. The challenge is how to move on from here. However difficult this question might be, and this difficulty should not be underestimated in the wake of rising neo-nationalism, international economic lawyers may not have an escape now.