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Trade, Human Rights and Development (LAWS70122)
Graduate coursework level 7Points: 12.5Not available in 2017
Overview
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Both trade and human rights are today understood as key elements of successful development policy. However, both the historical and conceptual foundations of this apparent convergence demand careful investigation. While mainstream economic thinking presumes that trade is beneficial for poor countries, critics have pointed out the terms of trade have long been weighted in favour of western, developed States. Similarly, while the emerging consensus that adherence to global human rights norms is necessary for the achievement of good development outcomes, in the past the goals of development and of human rights were often understood as at odds with one another. Utilising historical, discursive, and case study-based methodologies, this subject will provide students with an opportunity to critically examine the convergence of trade and human rights with contemporary development policy and practice.
Principal topics include:
- Introduction to the contested meanings of human rights, trade and development
- The historical evolution of the debate concerning the links between human rights and development, including the debate on the right to development
- Rights-based approaches to development, including one or more case studies
- The links between trade and development and trade and human rights, examined through case studies
- An examination of the new turn towards human rights and law by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
- The debate over global versus local labour standards and the dilemmas over monitoring
- The ethics, policy and law of the outsourcing debate and their links to human rights and development.
Intended learning outcomes
A student who has successfully completed this subject will:
- Understand the historical links between human rights, trade and development and their contested meanings
- Have a good knowledge of the doctrinal debates about rights to development and the legal barriers in the institutionalisation of rights in the development process, as well as the place of law in the development process
- Understand the practices of international economic institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization, and the positions they have taken with respect to development and ‘rights-based’ development
- Be aware of the dilemmas of introducing human rights in international trade negotiations and dispute resolution mechanisms, as well as the complexities of the labour standards debate
- Be familiar with the experience of rights-based development in the domestic legal systems of selected countries, including the constitutionalisation of social and economic rights
- Develop a critical perspective on the broad set of issues that lie at the intersection of human rights, trade and development, and be able to engage in related legal and policy matters.
Last updated: 3 November 2022