Trade, Human Rights and Development

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2008:

Objectives:

A candidate who has successfully completed the subject should:

• Understand the historical links between human rights, trade and development and their contested meanings
• Have a good knowledge of the doctrinal debates about rights to development and about the legal barriers in the institutionalisation of rights in the development process, as well as the place of law in the development process
• Understand the practices of international economic institutions, such as the World Bank, the IMF and the World Trade Organization, and the positions they have taken with respect to development and rights-based development
• Be aware of the dilemmas of introducing human rights in international trade negotiations and dispute-resolution mechanisms as well as the complexities of the labour standards debate
• Be familiar with the experience of rights-based development in the domestic legal systems of selected countries, including through constitutionalisation
• Develop a critical perspective on the broad set of issues that lie at the intersection of human rights, trade and development, and be able to engage in related legal and policy matters.

Syllabus:

Topics covered will include:

• Introduction to the contested meanings of human rights, trade and development
• The historical evolution of the debate concerning the linkage between human rights and development, including the debate on the right to development
• Rights-based approaches to development, with a case study of the World Commission on Dams
• The links between trade and development, and trade and human rights, with a case study of the controversy over the regulation of public health
• An examination of the new turn towards human rights and law by the World Bank and the IMF
• The debate over global versus local labour standards and the dilemmas over monitoring
• The ethics, policy and law of the outsourcing debate and their links to human rights and development.

• Examination 3 hours (100%) (15 August, pm)
  or
• Research paper 10,000 words (100%) (2 October) (topic approved by the subject coordinator)

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

Objectives:

A candidate who has successfully completed the subject should:

• Understand the historical links between human rights, trade and development and their contested meanings
• Have a good knowledge of the doctrinal debates about rights to development and about the legal barriers in the institutionalisation of rights in the development process, as well as the place of law in the development process
• Understand the practices of international economic institutions, such as the World Bank, the IMF and the World Trade Organization, and the positions they have taken with respect to development and rights-based development
• Be aware of the dilemmas of introducing human rights in international trade negotiations and dispute-resolution mechanisms as well as the complexities of the labour standards debate
• Be familiar with the experience of rights-based development in the domestic legal systems of selected countries, including through constitutionalisation
• Develop a critical perspective on the broad set of issues that lie at the intersection of human rights, trade and development, and be able to engage in related legal and policy matters.

Syllabus:

Topics covered will include:

• Introduction to the contested meanings of human rights, trade and development
• The historical evolution of the debate concerning the linkage between human rights and development, including the debate on the right to development
• Rights-based approaches to development, with a case study of the World Commission on Dams
• The links between trade and development, and trade and human rights, with a case study of the controversy over the regulation of public health
• An examination of the new turn towards human rights and law by the World Bank and the IMF
• The debate over global versus local labour standards and the dilemmas over monitoring
• The ethics, policy and law of the outsourcing debate and their links to human rights and development.

• Examination 3 hours (100%) (15 August, pm)
  or
• Research paper 10,000 words (100%) (2 October) (topic approved by the subject coordinator)