Short Seminar on Human Rights and International Economic Law
Ernst-Ulrich PETERSMANN (Emeritus Professor) and Margot Salomon (FBF)
Venue & dates: Sala Triaria, Thursday 17 May 14.00-18.00 and Friday 18 May 10.00-13.00; 14.00-17.00
Administrative Assistant: Eleonora Masella
Third Term: April – June 2012
3 credits (10 hours in 5 sessions over 2 days)
Seminar description
The Seminar will offer short overviews of common constitutional, legal and methodological problems of multilevel regulation and judicial protection of human rights and of transnational rule of law in international monetary, trade, financial, investment and environmental law. The method will be interdisciplinary and focus on economic, legal and political theories of justice and of ‘constitutional pluralism’ justifying legitimately diverse forms of multilevel regulation of human rights and the five competing conceptions of international economic law, i.e. as (1) international law among sovereign states (e.g. the Bretton Woods Agreements), (2) global administrative law (e.g. the law of UN Specialized Agencies and the WTO), (3) multilevel economic regulation (e.g. in the European Economic Area and NAFTA), (4) multilevel constitutional regulation (e.g. in the EU) and (5) multilevel ‘conflicts law’ (e.g. private law conceptions of international commercial, investment and arbitration law). Seminar participants are encouraged to make brief presentations of their relevant research projects and to engage in discussion of the ‘problem areas’ suggested below, following their brief presentation by Prof. Petersmann. The seminar hopes to assist researchers in human rights law and international economic law to clarify their methodologies (e.g. economic public goods theories, political theories of justice, the legitimate diversity of constitutional theories and economic law theories) and research projects through critical discussion of the ‘constitutional failures’ of the prevailing ‘Westphalian conceptions’ of UN law and international economic law.
Session I Human Rights Law (HRL) and International Economic Law (IEL)
1. Evolution and Dual Nature of National and International HRL
2. Evolution, Diverse Conceptions and Legitimacy Crisis of IEL
3. Interrelationships and Common Constitutional Problems of HRL and IEL: ‘Constitutional Functions’ of IEL? Multilevel Constitutional Pluralism? Cosmopolitan Constitutionalism?
4. Conflict Avoidance through ‘Harmonious Interpretation’: the VCLT, Comparative Institutional Choices and ‘Constitutional Justice’
5. Governance Failures in both HRL and IEL: Does HRL Require a Cosmopolitan IEL and its Multilevel Constitutional Protection? How to Regulate International Public Goods more Effectively?
Session II Procedural Human Rights, Rule of Law and IEL
6. The Human Right to Justification of Governmental Restrictions: Rights-based, Communitarian and Utilitarian Theories of Justice
7. Human Rights of Access to Justice, Rule of Law and a Cosmopolitan ‘Social Market Economy’?
8. Paradigms of Legal Hierarchy and of Legal Integration: Inter-Regime Conflicts and Intra-Regime Conflicts
9. Administration of Justice in International Economic Adjudication?
Session III Substantive Human Rights and IEL: Constitutional Pluralism and Diversity of Multilevel Rule-Making
10. Human Rights to Water, Food and Health in IEL: Margins of
Appreciation in Regulating Private and Public Goods
11. Human Rights to Private Property, Freedom of Profession and Trade?
12. Cosmopolitan Market Freedoms as Fundamental Rights?
13. Social and Labor Rights as Human Rights
14. Human Rights Responsibilities of TNCs, other NGOs and int’l Organizations
Session IV Reconciliation of Human Rights with IEL in European Law
15. Human Rights as Part of Europe’s Multilevel Economic Constitution (EU, EEA, ECHR)
16. Multilevel Interpretation of European Economic Law in Conformity with Human Rights (ECJ, EFTA Court, ECtHR)
17. ‘Proportionality Balancing’ of Human Rights and Economic Regulation in the Jurisprudence of European Courts
18. Limits of the European ‘Rule of Law’ Community
Session V Problems of Reconciling Human Rights and IEL in Worldwide Jurisdictions
19. Lack of Effective Protection of Human Rights in the Law of Worldwide Economic Organizations (UN, IMF, IBRD, WTO etc)
20. The Reports by the UNHCHR on Human Rights and WTO Law
21. Avoidance of HR Arguments in WTO and ICSID Jurisprudence
22. ILO Law as an alternative Regulatory Approach
23. The ‘Pendulum’ between National, Bilateral, Regional and Worldwide Regulation: The Future of IEL
Session VI Concluding discussion
Selected Bibliography for the General Course on HR and IEL
A. Books
F. Abbott/C. Breining/T. Cottier (eds), International Trade and Human Rights (Ann Arbor: Michigan University Press, 2006)
R. Alexy, A Theory of Fundamental Rights (Oxford: OUP, 2002)
W. Benedek/K. de Freyter/F. Marella (eds), Economic Globalisation and Human Rights (Cambridge: CUP, 2008)
S.Besson/J.Tasioulas (eds), The Philosophy of International Law (Oxford: OUP, 2010)
A. von Bogdandy/J. Bast (eds), Principles of European Constitutional Law (Oxford, Hart Publishing, 2006)
A.Buchanan, Justice, Legitimacy and Self-Determination. Moral Foundations for International Law (Oxford: OUP, 2004)
P. Capps, Human Dignity and the Foundations of International Law (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2009)
D.Z. Cass, The Constitutionalization of the WTO. Legitimacy, Democracy and Community in the International Trading System (Oxford: OUP, 2005)
T. Cottier/J.Pauwelyn/E.Bürgi (eds), Human Rights and International Trade (Oxford: OUP, 2005)
W.J. Davey/J.H. Jackson (eds), The Future of International Economic Law (Oxford: OUP, 2008)
R.Dolzer/C.Schreuer, Principles of International Investment Law (Oxford: OUP, 2008)
J.L. Dunoff/J.P. Trachtman (eds), Ruling the World? Constitutionalism, International Law and Global Governance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009)
P.M. Dupuy/F. Francioni/E.U. Petersmann (eds), Human Rights in International Investment Law and Arbitration (Oxford: OUP, 2009)
M.Emberland, The Human Rights of Companies: Exploring the Structure of ECHR Protection (Oxford: OUP, 2006)
B. Fassbender, The United Nations Charter as the Constitution of the International Community, Leiden: Nijhoff Publishers, 2009)
F.J.Garcia, Trade, Inequality and Justice: Toward a Liberal Theory of Just Trade (New York: Transnational Publishers, 2003)
V. Gauri/D.M. Brunks (eds), Courting Social Justice. Judicial Enforcement of Social and Economic Rights in the Developing World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008)
J.Harrison, The Human Rights Impact of the WTO (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2007)
H. Hestermeyer, Human Rights and the WTO. The Case of Patents and Access to Medicines (Oxford: OUP, 2007)
R.E. Howard-Hassmann/C.E. Welch (eds), Economic Rights in Canada and the United States (Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 2006)
C. Joerges/E.U. Petersmann (eds), Constitutionalism, Multilevel Trade Governance and International Economic Law (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2nd ed. 2011)
S.Joseph/D.Kinley/J.Waincymer (eds), The WTO and Human Rights (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2009).
D.Kinley, Civilizing Globalization. Human Rights and the Global Economy (Cambrdige: CUP, 2009)
C.Krause/M.Scheinin (eds), International Protection of Human Rights: A Textbook (Turku: Abo Akademi University, 2009)
E.U. Petersmann, Constitutional Functions and Constitutional Problems of International Economic Law. International and Domestic Foreign Trade Law and Foreign Trade Policy in the United States, the European Community and Switzerland (Fribourg: Fribourg University Press and Oxford/San Francisco: Westview Press, 1991)
E.U. Petersmann (ed), Reforming the World Trading System. Legitimacy, Efficiency and Democratic Governance (Oxford: OUP, 2005)
E.U.Petersmann, International Economic Law in the 21st Century. Constitutional Pluralism and Multilevel Governance of Interdependent Public Goods (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2012)
T. Pogge, World Poverty and Human Rights (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2003)
A.H. Qureshi/A. Ziegler, International Economic Law (London: Sweet & Maxwell, 2nd ed. 2007)
B.G. Ramcharan (ed), Judicial Protection of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Leiden: Nijhoff, 2005)
J. Rawls, A Theory of Justice (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971)
J. Rawls, Political Liberalism (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993)
J. Rawls, Law of Peoples (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999; cited: Rawls 1999)
T.Sandefur, The Right to Earn a Living. Economic Freedom and the Law (Washington: Cato Institute, 2010).
M.J.Sandel, Justice. What is the Right Thing to Do? (New York: Farrer, Straus and Giroux. 2009)
A. Sen, Development as Freedom (New York: A. Knopf, 2000)
B. A few recent articles
M.Darrow/L.Arbour, The Pillar of Glass: Human Rights in the Development Operations of the UN, in: AJIL 102 (2009), at 446 ff
P.Hilpold, WTO Law and Human Rights: Bringing Together Two Autopoietic Orders (2010, to be published in 2011)
J.H. Knox, Climate Change and Human Rights Law, in: Virginia Journal of International Law 50 (2009), at 163 ff
E.U.Petersmann, International Trade Law, Human Rights and the Customary International Law Rules on Treaty Interpretation, in: S.Joseph/D.Kinley/ J.Waincymer (eds), The WTO and Human Rights (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2009), 69-90
E.U.Petersmann, Human Rights, International Economic Law and ‘Constitutional Justice’, in: European Journal of International Law 19 (2008), 769-798
E.U.Petersmann, International Economic Law, Public Reason and Multilevel Governance of Interdependent Public Goods, in: Journal of International Economic Law 14 (2011), 23-76
E.U.Petersmann, Human Rights and International Economic Law in the 21st Century: The Need to Clarify their Interrelationships, in: Journal of International Economic Law 4 (2001), 3-40
G.A.Sarfaty, Why Culture Matters in International Institutions: The Marginality of Human Rights at the World Bank, in: AJIL 103 (2009), 647 ff
J.Waldron, Socioeconomic Rights and Theories of Justice, in: NYU Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper Series Working Paper No. 10-79
C. Reading Materials (for distribution to participants)
1) E.U.Petersmann, Human Rights and International Economic Law: Common Constitutional Challenges and Changing Structures, in: EUI Law Department Working Papers 2012 (forthcoming)
2) E.U.Petersmann, Introduction and Summary: ‘Administration of Justice’ in International Investment Law and Adjudication? in: P.M.Dupuy/F.Francioni/E.U.Petersmann (eds), Human Rights in International Investment Law and Arbitration (2009), 3-39.
3) E.U.Petersmann, The Future of International Economic Law: A Research Agenda, in: C. Joerges/E.U. Petersmann (eds), Constitutionalism, Multilevel Trade Governance and International Economic Law (2011), Chapter 18.