Description

The geopolitical turmoil which has unfolded in recent times has augmented the role that national security plays in international economic law to an unprecedent degree, so much so that it has rendered the rule of law governing international trade and investment almost an irrelevancy. The scope of the essential security provisions in WTO and other economic integration treaties has empowered domestic lawmakers to enact a range of anti-market measures, ostensibly designed to foster resilience of strategic sectors in an era of instability magnified by weakening alliances. Steel tariffs, subsidization of microchip production and banning of foreign technology companies are among the most salient of these. The wide discretion accorded by international tribunals to legitimize such policies has effectively neutered the Bretton Woods regime upon which globalization was built.

This lecture will explore some of the key manifestations of the security-backed rejection of international economic legal principles centred on open markets and private property, including tariffs and subsidization in trade as well as foreign investment screening and expropriation. It will further consider some of the emerging legal issues arising in the administration and enforcement of economic integration treaties by international arbitration tribunals in the context of heightened geopolitical conflict.