The Principles of a New International Economic Order and the Law of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)

Abstract

The principles of classical international economic law, as it developed during the 19th and the first part of the 20th century, were based upon the three fundamentals of freedom, legal equality, and reciprocity. UNGA resolutions 3201(S-VI) and 3281(XX1X) of 1974 embody the legal principles upon which a new international economic order (NIEO) should be based. These principles in their turn are based upon the three N1EO fundamentals of protection of the economic interests of developing countries, preferential treatment of developing countries, and non-reciprocity in the relationship between developed and developing countries. The present study investigates to what extent these three NIEO fundamentals have become implemented in the legal practice of a notorious classical institution, the GATT, and have thereby passed the border between UNGA recommendations and binding law. It concludes that, although GATT practice reveals a substantial effort to give implementation to the NIEO fundamentals, so far it has provided developing contracting parties with only few true preferential rights.