The Law and Economics of Globalisation (LAWS90251)

This subject examines the law and economics of globalisation. It begins with an overview of economic impacts of trade liberalisation and lays out why there are winners and losers. It proceeds with a discussion of current trends in globalisation and relates them to the evolving geopolitical context. It then examines the legal instruments available to States to manage economic pressures resulting from increased globalisation and to counter (potentially) trade-distorting practices of their trade partners. These include the existing legal instruments at the international level under the WTO treaties, such as anti-dumping/anti-subsidy measures and safeguards, as well as more recent innovations at the domestic level relating to matters like currency manipulation, economic coercion, transnational subsidies, foreign investment screening, differences in environmental/labour standards, and distortions arising from economies and sectors with substantial government involvement.

The principal substantive topics that will be addressed in this subject will include:

• The economic rationale behind international trade agreements, including:
  
  • the economic benefits of globalisation;
  • the distributional impacts of trade liberalisation; and
  • the role of policy coherence.
• Current issues in global trade and trade policy and justifications for the legal tools States resort to, in order to manage these aspects of globalisation, such as:
  
  • concerns around unfair trade practices;
  • an evolving geopolitical context;
  • supply-chain resilience; and
  • "global commons"- and related issues such as climate change.
• The primary legal tools in this regard at the international level, to address certain economic impacts of trade liberalisation. Our focus is on the trade remedy tools under the WTO treaties; namely:
  
  • anti-dumping measures;
  • anti-subsidy measures;
  • safeguards under the WTO treaties.
• New and emerging legal tools at the domestic level in jurisdictions like the EU, US, Australia and India to manage trade distortions such as:
  
  • currency manipulation;
  • economic coercion;
  • transnational subsidies;
  • foreign investment screening;
  • lower environmental/labour standards; and
  • issues relating to non-market economies.