The Human Rights Impact of the World Trade Organisation

Description

This book examines the impact of international trade rules on the promotion and protection of human rights, and explains why human rights are an important mechanism for assessing the social justice impact of the international trading system. The core of the book is an in depth analysis of the various ways in which international trade law rules impact upon human rights protection and promotion, emphasising the significance of the jurisdictional context in which the human rights issues arise: coercive measures that are taken by one country to protect and promote human rights in another country are distinguished from measures taken by a country to protect and promote the human rights of its own population. The author contends that international trade law rules have utilised certain ad hoc mechanisms to deal with particularly pressing human rights concerns in the trade context, but also argues that these mechanisms do not provide systemic solutions to the inter-linkages between the two legal systems. The author therefore examines mechanisms by which human rights arguments could be more systematically raised and adjudicated upon in WTO dispute settlement proceedings, highlighting future opportunities and difficulties. He concludes by considering broader systemic issues outside the dispute settlement process that need to be addressed if trade law rules are to successfully protect and promote human rights.

James Harrison is Assistant Professor at the University of Warwick. He was previously the Head of the Trade, Business and Human Rights Unit and Research and Programmes Co-ordinator at the University of Nottingham Human Rights Law Centre. Dr Harrison has also worked as a consultant for a number of international organisations including; for the Council of Europe on fair trade and ethical finance issues; for the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights on human rights approaches to the World Trade Organisation (WTO); for Article 19, on corporate transparency policies and for Amnesty International on the human rights impact of the international trading system. He previously worked as a researcher at the human rights organisation Liberty, before qualifying as a solicitor at Bindman and Partners, one of the leading human rights law firms in the UK. He then completed his PhD at the European Institute in Florence.

The Human Rights Impact of the World Trade Organisation...is the first full length scholarly monograph on the topic of trade and human rights...the literature on trade and human rights is still in the process of searching for a secure conceptual and theoretical footing, and it is one of the achievements of Harrison's work that he helps to move that process in a number of significant ways...the (quasi) draft Declaration on trade and human rights which Harrison offers in the concluding pages of Chapter 12 is admirably ambitious and could serve as a useful point of departure for future political activity. In many ways, it performs the same function in a few paragraphs that the book itself does on a larger scale: crystallising and clarifying some of the core normative claims at play in the trade and human rights debate, and encouraging us to think creatively about the institutional processes and other mechanisms by which 'social justice' concerns about the international trading system can be addressed. -- Andrew Lang * The Modern Law Review, 71(4) * The work is excellent in merging complex theoretical issues surrounding human rights norms and real-world situations and cases of globalization and increasing trade liberalization and integration. -- Wesley T. Milner * Law and Politics Book Review, Vol. 18 No.4 * ...a welcome addition to the growing literature in this field...Harrison not only provides a balanced and thoughtful analysis of the issues at the intersection of the international trade and human rights regimes, but he also provides pragmatic suggestions that can and should be built upon by both international institutions, national governments, and NGOs alike. Tracey Epps New Zealand Law Journal June 2008 -- Tracey Epps * New Zealand Law Journal *