Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-12T20:03:43.246Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Prospects for Constitutionalization of the WTO

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

DOUGLAS R. NELSON
DOUGLAS R. NELSON*
Affiliation:
Murphy Institute and Department of Economics Tulane University
*
*Email: dnelson@tulane.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper seeks to evaluate the prospects for constitutional reform of the WTO by drawing on the broader literature on constitutionalization. In particular, it argues that constitutionalization implies a coherent civil society, linked to the constitutionalized entity via democratic politics. While there may be an emergent global civil society around international trade, there is no framework for democratic politics. Thus, constitutional reform seems problematic.

Type
Review Article
Information
World Trade Review , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , January 2015 , pp. 135 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © Douglas R. Nelson 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bagehot, W. (1867), The English Constitution, London: Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar
Bagwell, K. and Staiger, R. W. (2002), The Economics of the World Trading System, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Besson, S. (2009), ‘Whose Constitution(s)? International Law, Constitutionalism, and Democracy’, in Dunoff, J. L. and Trachtman, J. P. (eds.), Law and Global Governance, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 381–408.Google Scholar
Bogdanor, V. (1996), Politics and the Constitution: Essays on British Government, Aldershot: Dartmouth.Google Scholar
Bogdanor, V. (2009), The New British Constitution, Oxford: Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Bown, C. P. (2009), Self-Enforcing Trade: Developing Countries and WTO Dispute Settlement, Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Cass, D. Z. (2001), ‘The “Constitutionalization” of International Trade Law: Judicial Norm-Generation as the Engine of Constitutional Development in International Trade’, European Journal of International Law, 12(1): 39–75.Google Scholar
Cass, D. Z. (2005), The Constitutionalization of the World Trade Organization: Legitimacy, Democracy, and Community in the International Trading System, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Búrca, G. and Scott, J. (eds.) (2001), The EU and the WTO: Legal and Constitutional Issues, Oxford: Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Dicey, A. V. (1885), An Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution, London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Dunoff, J. L. (2008), ‘Less Than Zero: The Effects of Giving Domestic Effect to WTO Law’, Loyola University Chicago International Law Review, 6(1): 279–310.Google Scholar
Dunoff, J. L. (2009), ‘The Politics of International Constitutions: The Curious Case of the World Trade Organization’, in Dunoff, J. L. and Trachtman, J. P. (eds.), Ruling the World: Constitutionalism, International Law, and Global Governance, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dunoff, J. L. and Trachtman, J. P. (eds.) (2009), Ruling the World?: Constitutionalism, International Law, and Global Governance, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ehrenberg, J. (1999), Civil Society: The Critical History of an Idea, New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Eichengreen, B. (2006), The European Economy since 1945: Coordinated Capitalism and Beyond, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Frieden, J. A. (2006), Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century, New York: W.W. Norton & Co.Google Scholar
Gaddis, J. L. (2005), Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of American National Security Policy During the Cold War, New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Goldstein, J., Kahler, M., Keohane, R. O., and Slaughter, A.-M. (eds.) (2001), Legalization and World Politics, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Grieco, J. M., Gelpi, C. F., and Warren, T. C. (2009), ‘When Preferences and Commitments Collide: The Effect of Relative Partisan Shifts on International Treaty Compliance’, International Organization, 63(2): 341–355.Google Scholar
Habermas, J. (1975), Legitimation Crisis, Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Hartigan, J. C. (ed.) (2009), Trade Disputes and the Dispute Settlement Understanding of the WTO: An Interdisciplinary Assessment, Bingley, UK: Emerald.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howse, R. (2001), ‘The Legitimacy of the World Trade Organization’, in Coicaud, J.-M. and Heiskanen, V. (eds.), The Legitimacy of International Organizations, New York: United Nations Press, pp. 355–407.Google Scholar
Hurwicz, Leonid (1995), ‘What Is the Coase Theorem?’, Japan and the World Economy, 7(1): 49–74.Google Scholar
Hurwicz, Leonid (1999), ‘Revisiting Externalities’, Journal of Public Economic Theory, 1(2): 225–245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, J. H. (1989), The World Trading System: Law and Policy of International Economic Relations, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Jackson, J. H. (1992), ‘Status of Treaties in Domestic Legal Systems: A Policy Analysis’. The American Journal of International Law, 86(2): 310–340.Google Scholar
Jackson, J. H. (1998), The World Trade Organization: Constitution and Jurisprudence, London: Royal Institute of International Affairs.Google Scholar
Jackson, J. H. (2000), The Jurisprudence of Gatt and the WTO: Insights on Treaty Law and Economic Relations, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jackson, J. H. (2006), Sovereignty, the WTO and Changing Fundamentals of International Law, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Joerges, C. and Petersmann, E.-U. (eds.) (2011), Constitutionalism, Multilevel Trade Governance and International Economic Law, Oxford: Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Klabbers, J. (2009), ‘Setting the Scene’, in Klabbers, J., Peters, A., and Ulfstein, G. (eds.), The Constitutionalization of International Law, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 1–44.Google Scholar
Klabbers, J., Peters, A. and Ulfstein, G. (eds.) (2009), The Constitutionalization of International Law, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayer, W. (1981), ‘Theoretical Considerations on Negotiated Tariff Adjustments’, Oxford Economic Papers, 33(1): 135–153.Google Scholar
McKelvey, R. D. and Page, T. (1999), ‘Taking the Coase Theorem Seriously’, Economics and Philosophy, 15(2): 235–247.Google Scholar
Nelson, D. R. (1989), ‘The Domestic Political Preconditions of US Trade Policy: Liberal Structure and Protectionist Dynamics’, Journal of Public Policy, 9(1): 83–108.Google Scholar
Peters, A. (2009), ‘Membership in the Global Constitutional Community’, in Klabbers, J., Peters, A., and Ulfstein, G. (eds.), The Consitutionalization of International Law, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 153–261.Google Scholar
Petersmann, E.-U. (2012), International Economic Law in the 21st Century: Constitutional Pluralism and Multilevel Governance of Interdependent Public Goods, Oxford: Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Polanyi, K. (1944/2001), The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time, Boston, MA: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Putnam, R. D. (2000), Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Putnam, R. D., Leonardi, R., and Nanetti, R. (1993), Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Rueschemeyer, D., Huber, E., and Stephens, J. D. (1992), Capitalist Development and Democracy, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Ruggie, J. G. (1982), ‘International Regimes, Transactions, and Change: Embedded Liberalism in the Post-War Economic Order’, International Organization, 36(2): 379–415.Google Scholar
Schattschneider, E. E. (1960), The Semisovereign People: A Realist's View of Democracy in America, New York: Holt.Google Scholar
Schloemann, H. L. and Ohlhoff, S. (1999), ‘“Constitutionalization” and Dispute Settlement in the WTO: National Security as an Issue of Competence’, The American Journal of International Law, 93(2): 424–451.Google Scholar
Schumpeter, J. A. (1942/1975), Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Shonfield, A. (1965), Modern Capitalism: The Changing Balance of Public and Private Power, London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stone Sweet, A. (1999), ‘Judicialization and the Construction of Governance’, Comparative Political Studies, 32(2): 147–184.Google Scholar
Tönnies, F. (1988), Community and Society, New Brunswick: Transaction Books.Google Scholar
Trachtman, J. P. (1999), ‘Bananas, Direct Effect and Compliance’, European Journal of International Law, 10(4): 655–678.Google Scholar
Trachtman, J. P. (2008), The Economic Structure of International Law, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
von Bogdandy, A. (2001), ‘Law and Politics in the WTO: Strategies to Cope with a Deficient Relationship’, Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law, 5: 609–674.Google Scholar
von Bogdandy, A. (2008), ‘Pluralism, Direct Effect, and the Ultimate Say: On the Relationship between International and Domestic Constitutional Law’, International Journal of Constitutional Law, 6(3–4): 397–413.Google Scholar
Walker, N. (2002), ‘The Idea of Constitutional Pluralism’, The Modern Law Review, 65(3): 317–359.Google Scholar
Weiler, J. H. H. (1999), The Constitution of Europe: ‘Do the New Clothes Have an Emperor?’ And Other Essays on European Integration, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Weiler, J. H. H. (2001), ‘The Rule of Lawyers and the Ethos of Diplomats: Reflections on the Internal and External Legitimacy of WTO Dispute Settlements’, Journal of World Trade, 35(2): 191–207.Google Scholar
Weiler, J. H. H. (ed.) (2000), The EU, the WTO, and the NAFTA: Towards a Common Law of International Trade, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wolfers, A. (1951), ‘The Pole of Power and the Pole of Indifference’, World Politics, 4(1): 39–63.Google Scholar