Global Justice And International Economic Law

For centuries, international trade has been seen as essential to the wealth and power of nations. More recently we have started to understand its problematic role as an engine of distributive justice. In this compelling book Frank J. Garcia proposes a new way to evaluate, construct and manage international trade - one that is based on norms of economic justice, comparative advantage and national interest. Garcia examines three ways to conceptualize the problem of trade and global justice, drawn from Rawlsian liberalism, communitarianism and consent theory. These approaches illustrate specific issues of importance to the way global justice has been theorized, offering a pluralistic mode of arguing for global justice and highlighting the unique modes of discourse we employ when engaging with global justice and their implications for conceptualizing and arguing the problem. Garcia suggests a new direction for trade agreements built around truly consensual trade negotiations and the kind of international economic system they would structure. Review: It is the rare scholar who can write lucidly and compellingly about Rawls, Kant, cosmopolitanism, contractarianism, and international economic law all in the same breath. Frank Garcia pulls it off and makes a genuine contribution to a pluralist conception of global justice by working through universal concepts in both language and law. --Anne-Marie Slaughter, Princeton University, Director of Policy Planning, U.S. Department of State, 2009-2011 The relationship between international economic law and global justice is surely one of the most crucial - but least studied - questions posed by globalization. With this important volume, legal scholar Frank Garcia steps into this scholarly void. Garcia draws upon moral theory and political philosophy to develop a strikingly original understanding of the nature and possibilities of international economic law. Professor Garcia skillfully avoids the pitfalls associated with other efforts to theorize global justice, and provides valuable insights into how best to advance toward this fundamental, if elusive, goal. --Jeffrey L. Dunoff, Laura H. Carnell Professor of Law and Director, Institute for International Law Public Policy, Temple University Beasley School of Law Global justice is not just an optional extra for economic globalization. It is the very measure by which globalization's success is gauged and its failures condemned. Or at least it should be. By meticulously examining the various ways we think about global justice Frank Garcia's enlightening and elegant arguments show that too often the concept is ignored or its meaning twisted, when it desperately needs to be better understood and invoked if the benefits of the global economy are to be fairly exploited and its injustices minimized. --David Kinley, Chair in Human Rights Law, The University of Sydney