Prof. Trachtman Gives Robert E Hudec Keynote Lecture for Biennial Meeting of the Society of International Economic Law

Professor of International Law Joel Trachtman was honored to give the Hudec Lecture at the biennial meeting of the leading professional/academic organization in the field of international economic law, the Society of International Economic Law, to an audience of 200 practitioners, scholars and policy-makers from around the world. This lecture honors the memory of Robert Hudec, who himself was a Fletcher professor who died in 2003 after playing a founding and leading role in the field. Prof. Trachtman’s speech examined the core problems of globalization: how and why states give up autonomy over their domestic economic policy and regulation in order to open markets and produce greater welfare.

He discussed the difficult legal and institutional problems raised by regulatory diversity, and the ways in which the legal rules and institutions will need to evolve in order to ensure that states retain appropriate control over their economic and regulatory policy. He made three related points. First, in order to achieve efficient levels and types of international cooperation, it will be necessary to overcome fragmentation among different types of international law and governance, both in international legislation and in international adjudication. Second, WTO dispute settlement has avoided making cross-sectoral trade-offs that would effectively overcome fragmentation, in part because it generally avoids evaluation of national regulatory rationales, and in part because its mandate does not allow application of international law beyond its own treaties. Third, even if the fragmentation problem in legislation and adjudication were overcome, it would still be necessary to move (gradually and selectively) toward majority voting in order to reach an efficient level of international law-making.

Watch Robert Hudec lecture delivered by Prof. Trachtman