In Chapter 6, we began to develop the substance of the new animating norm of the international trading system: the enablement of global economic opportunity. Additionally, we began to define the contours of the norm when discussing the institutions that we think should be charged with its implementation. In this chapter, we develop in greater depth our conception of the enablement of global economic opportunity as an animating “constitutional principle.” In the first part of the chapter, we start with an evaluation of the norm in light of a construct for judging the legitimacy of international norms. In the second part, we present various scenarios that illustrate how it might be applied by the framers of the international trade system. We conclude with an explanation of why the interests of the principal strategic and economic players of the early post-modern world would be well-served by a reform of the WTO organization that could institutionalize the norm and give it constitutional preeminence comparable to that of comparative advantage.

LEGITIMACY AND REALIZABILITY

The question of the legitimacy of international legal norms has been a preoccupation of academics and commentators alike.