World Trade and Investment Law in a Time of Crisis: Distribution, Development and Social Protection

World Trade and Investment Law Reimagined: A Progressive Agenda for an Inclusive Globalization (Alvaro Santos, Chantal Thomas & David Trubek eds., London: Anthem Press 2019), Pp. 1.

Cornell Legal Studies Research Paper No. 21-45

40 Pages Posted: 4 May 2021 Last revised: 17 Dec 2021

See all articles by David M. Trubek

David M. Trubek

University of Wisconsin Law School

Alvaro Santos

Georgetown University Law Center

Chantal Thomas

Cornell Law School

Date Written: September 1, 2019

Abstract

World trade and investment law is in crisis: new and progressive ideas are needed. Rules that facilitated globalization and supported global economic growth are being challenged. A system of global governance that once seemed secure is now at risk as the US ignores the rules while developing countries struggle to escape restrictions. Some want to tear global institutions and agreements down while others try desperately to maintain the status quo. Rejecting both options, we convened a group of trade and investment law experts from 10 countries South and North who have proposed ideas for a new world trade and investment law that would maintain global growth while distributing costs and benefits more fairly. This essay frames the issues and introduces the volume. We look at the impact of trade and investment law on the global distribution of resources, and pay special attention to those who have suffered from trade dislocation and to restrictions that have hampered innovative growth strategies in developing countries. This perspective shapes a progressive trade and investment law agenda that is outlined in the book and summarized here. We suggest new ways to link trade with protection for labor; measures to ensure that gains from trade are used to offset loses; new rules that can protect foreign investments without hamstringing developing governments or harming local communities; innovative procedures to allow developing countries freedom to try innovative growth strategies; and methods to cope with new products like cannabis.

Keywords: international trade law, globalization, trade, economics and law, global inequality

Suggested Citation

Trubek, David M. and Santos, Alvaro and Thomas, Chantal, World Trade and Investment Law in a Time of Crisis: Distribution, Development and Social Protection (September 1, 2019). World Trade and Investment Law Reimagined: A Progressive Agenda for an Inclusive Globalization (Alvaro Santos, Chantal Thomas & David Trubek eds., London: Anthem Press 2019), Pp. 1., Cornell Legal Studies Research Paper No. 21-45, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3839021 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3839021

David M. Trubek

University of Wisconsin Law School ( email )

975 Bascom Mall
Madison, WI 53706
United States

Alvaro Santos (Contact Author)

Georgetown University Law Center ( email )

600 New Jersey Av. NW
Washington, DC 20001
United States
202-662-9542 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/santos-alvaro.cfm

Chantal Thomas

Cornell Law School ( email )

Myron Taylor Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853-4901
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/faculty/bio.cfm?id=230

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