International Law and the Social Question

Abstract

While international law has played a central role in creating the conditions for market liberalization on a global scale, many international lawyers have paid less attention to the social question - that is, the question of who is able to participate in political decision-making about economic relations and property rights.

The current moment of perceived backlash to international law and institutions offers an opportunity to think again about the ways of relating politics, economics, and the social that have been consolidated through international law and to do so by posing the issue as a question of representation.

How might international economic law-making and adjudication be re-embedded within political processes? And how can foundational political questions about property, security, survival, and freedom be returned to democratic control?