FOUNDATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC LAW
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC LAW
- International
o Treaty of Westphalia- the birth of international law (disputed but whatever)
o Sovereignty and respecting other sovereigns
- Economic
o Smith: everyone acts for their own interest (not the kindness of their hearts)
o Each can maximize their activity (transborder production: more efficiency but less legal security)
o Keynes: economic goods = natural
- Law
o Hart: Legal system = primary rules + secondary rules
Primary rules: rules governing conduct; Secondary rules: Rules of recognition (what are rules?); Rules of
change (how to change the rules?); Rules of adjudication (how to solve disagreements?)
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC LAW
- Complex architecture of rules governing international economic relations and transboundary economic conduct by States,
international organizations, and private actors.
- Regulation of cross-border transactions in goods, services, and capital, monetary relations and the international protection of
intellectual property.
- Core areas of international economic law: international trade law, law of regional economic integration, and other bi- or multilateral
trade agreements, international investment law and international monetary law.
- Actors of international economic law are: states, state-owned enterprises, and international organizations. Alongside international
organizations, new forms of inter-State cooperation have emerged as a response to the ever-increasing economic globalization
Dutch East - Birth of global trade & investment system
India
Company
After - 1920/30ies: no rules on international trade (between WWI and WWII)
World - unstable political and economic situation led most countries to adopt massive trade restrictions in order to
War II protect domestic production and employment
Bretton - Set of unified rules and policies provided framework to create fixed international currency exchange
Woods rates.
- World Bank + IMF + International Trade Organization
o Havana Charter (1947-1948): resistance in US Congress, fear that ITO would undermine broad
congressional powers in regulating foreign commerce. US congress never ratified
GATT - came into being in 1947: remained in force until the foundation of the WTO in 1995
1947 - conceived as interim agreement (originally thought to be designed as part of the ITO)
- function: conceived as an instrument to bring about progressive liberalisation
- Dealt only with trade (border barriers, unconditional MFN)
- GATT problems
o Problems lowering of trade barriers: ‘New protectionism’: anti-dumping, subsidies, voluntary export re-
strictions; Fragmentation of rules, ‘forum shopping’
o Regional trade agreements (EU, NAFTA, MERCOSUR)
o New multilateral system, stronger rules (‘blocking’)
o Institutionally weak: consensus decision-making
United - system of Collective Security
Nations - from co-existence to co-operation in reconstruction and development
weak mandate in economic and trade-related matters
WTO LAW EXISTS NEXT TO OTHER AGREEMENTS (NOT SUPERIOR )
- In case of conflict of norms- no longer intra-trade difficulty but rather the conflict between external and internal legitimacy
- If agreement is found to violate WTO law- it doesn’t make the agreement void, then states can decide what they want to do
with it (to alter it or whatever) All WTO does is assess issue from WTO perspective, no way to enforce certain things
Membership - Composition: states (developed, developing and least-developed countries), EU (each MS is also
WTO member separation of competences), separate customs territories possessing full
autonomy in trade relations, such as Hong Kong.
