Emerging Powers in the International Economic Order Cooperation, Competition and Transformation

The post-war liberal economic order seems to be crumbling, placing the world at an inflection point. China has emerged as a major force, and other emerging economies seek to play a role in shaping world trade and investment law. Might they band together to mount a wholesale challenge to current rules and institutions? Emerging Powers in the International Economic Order argues that resistance from the Global South and the creation of China-led alternative spaces will have some impact, but no robust alternative vision will emerge. Significant legal innovations from the South depart from the mainstream neoliberal model, but these countries are driven by pragmatism and strategic self-interest and not a common ideological orientation, nor do they intend to fully dismantle the current ordering. In this book, Sonia E. Rolland and David M. Trubek predict a more pluralistic world, which is neither the continued hegemony of neoliberalism nor a full blown alternative to it.

1. Introduction; 2. Cooperation narratives and theoretical divergences; 3. Developing countries' love-hate relationship with neoliberalism; 4. Seeking a new balance of rights and obligations in international investment law; 5. Emerging economies, developmental strategies, and trade standards: the search for alternative space; 6. Emerging economies and the future of the global trade and investment regime.

Sonia E. Rolland is a Professor of Law at School of Law, Northeastern University, Boston. She is the author of Development at the WTO (2012) and regularly acts as an expert for international and non-governmental organizations including the United Nations, the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, and the India Institute of Foreign Trade. She has held appointments at Columbia University, Georgetown University and the University of Michigan.
David M. Trubek is Voss-Bascom Professor of Law and Dean of International Studies Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard Law School. He is a world renowned expert on law and development, with a regional focus on Latin America. He has published dozens of books and articles, including Law and the New Developmental State: The Brazilian Experience in Latin American Context (Cambridge, 2013) and World Trade and Investment Law Reimagined: A Progressive Agenda for an Inclusive Globalization (forthcoming).