Contracting v. Multilateral-Ism in Global Economic Governance: Before, During and After the WTO

Abstract

This chapter, for a book focused on the future of the World Trade Organization, discusses three ways that global economic law and corresponding transnational dispute settlement systems have been constructed across time: via private contracting, inter-state contracting, or through principled multilateral-ism. Offering a global capitalism and law perspective, the chapter compares the ideal type of each model to the historical practice, identifying what multilateral-ism provides that contracting does not. The larger argument is that all three modes of law-making should and will co-exist. We should therefore be thinking about which mode of law-making is best for a particular issue or context, and how we might use the other modes to address problems that arise in each approach. The chapter then considers how contracting can supplant the WTO, and the trade-offs associated with such an outcome.