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Cornell University Law School

International Trade Law

Free trade

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Rethinking Free Trade, Fernando L. Leila Nov 2010

Rethinking Free Trade, Fernando L. Leila

Cornell Law School Inter-University Graduate Student Conference Papers

This paper examines the present theories and shortcomings of current free trade policy, and the consequences thereof, which promote protectionist behavior among countries on an international scale. Theoretically, free trade should encourage progress within the global community. However, developing countries, with astonishing growth rates, like Brazil, China or India, have based their economies on opposing economic policies, closer to mercantilism than liberalization or free trade, allowing for poor countries to question whether free trade is the right way to improve their economies. Furthermore, a huge gap exists between what developed countries preach and what they practice, presenting a major obstacle …


Challenges For Democracy And Trade: The Case Of The United States, Chantal Thomas Jan 2004

Challenges For Democracy And Trade: The Case Of The United States, Chantal Thomas

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Predominant political theory holds that legislators are protectionist regarding international trade because susceptibility to minority interest groups leads them to vote in ways that protect domestic industries at the expense of free trade. Because free trade is widely regarded as beneficial to the majority, the protectionist tendency of the legislature is believed to be a disservice to most Americans. These two theories have led to policies that restrict the role of the legislature in the formulation of trade policy, specifically, the creation of the fast track framework for trade policy legislation that exists today. This Essay challenges these two theories, …


To The Yukon And Beyond: Local Laborers In A Global Market, Katherine V.W. Stone Jul 1999

To The Yukon And Beyond: Local Laborers In A Global Market, Katherine V.W. Stone

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This Article explores the possibilities for effective protection of labor rights in the emerging global labor market. It explores existing forms of transnational labor regulation, including both hard regulation, i.e., regulation by state-centered institutions, and soft regulation, i.e., regulation through private actors responding to market forces. The author finds that existing regulatory approaches are inadequate to ensure that the global marketplace will offer adequate labor standards to its global workforce. She proposes new approaches to global labor regulation, approaches that blend hard and soft law by reshaping market forces and embedding them in a regulatory framework that is protective of …