Lawmaking by international organizations has enormous influence over world trade and national economies. This book explores who makes that law and how.

A reader-friendly overview of leading theoretical approaches to international law for students, scholars, and practitioners.

Contrasts democratic and authoritarian approaches to international law, explaining how their interaction will affect the world in the future.

This collection explores the analytical, empirical and normative components that distinguish socio-legal approaches to international economic law both from each other, and from other approaches. It pays particular attention to the substantive focus (what) of socio-legal approaches, noting that they go beyond the text to consider context and, often, subtext. In the process of identifying the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ (analytical and empirical tools) of their own socio-legal approaches, contributors to this collection reveal why they or anyone else ought to bother--the many reasons ‘why’ it is important, for theory and for practice, to take a social legal approach to international economic law.

"Abstract Global legal pluralism has become one of the leading analytical frameworks for understanding and conceptualizing law in the twenty-first century"--

This book explains the rise of China, India, and Brazil in the international trading system, and the implications for trade law.

Craig Murphy's groundbreaking book examines the measures that global institutions have taken, assesses the limited success of global governance and provides a coruscating expose of its failures.

In the light of the financial crisis, it has become clear that the globalisation of financial markets has not been matched by the globalisation of legal certainty relating to financial transactions. The ability to give security influences not only the cost of credit but also, in some cases, whether credit will be available at all. Increasing the availability and lowering the cost of credit can make an important contribution to international and domestic economic development. Assessing the international challenges posed by inefficient secured credit laws, this book explores how these can be overcome to facilitate credit through legal reforms. Leading authorities in the field address the key issues surrounding the availability of credit, the role of banks in economic development and financial crises, UNCITRAL's legislative efforts, and international organisations and financial institutions and their involvement in the reform of secured transactions law.

Traditional diplomacy is based on the notion of competing nation-states, each attempting to maximize its autonomy and independence. This notion is at odds with today's world in which even mighty states are enmeshed in a web of interdependence. Much of the world's economy, information, industry, and culture have become global. Given these massive changes, argues Thomas Nowotny, much of traditional diplomacy has become redundant and sometimes counterproductive. Notwithstanding worldwide interdependence, states still anchor this complex global system. In a timelier version of their craft, diplomats retain an important function in safeguarding and shaping that worldwide interdependence. They are trained to transform differences into consensus and to navigate zones of conflict. But to do so effectively, and to meet today's challenges, they will have to adjust their ways and institutions. Nowotny bases his arguments on his unique experiences in internal organizational politics and in bilateral and multilateral international diplomacy, as well as on his theoretical reflections as an academic. His work aims to merge lessons from these distinct spheres into one comprehensive whole, intertwining practice and theory. To affect outcomes one, thus, has to deal with practice and theory at the same time. This is what Novotny aims to achieve, and he succeeds admirably.

This volume introduces readers to regulatory theory. Aimed at practitioners, postgraduate students and those interested in regulation as a cross-cutting theme in the social sciences, Regulatory Theory includes chapters on the social-psychological foundations of regulation as well as theories of regulation such as responsive regulation, smart regulation and nodal governance. It explores the key themes of compliance, legal pluralism, meta-regulation, the rule of law, risk, accountability, globalisation and regulatory capitalism. The environment, crime, health, human rights, investment, migration and tax are among the fields of regulation considered in this ground-breaking book. Each chapter introduces the reader to key concepts and ideas and contains suggestions for further reading. The contributors, who either are or have been connected to the Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet) at The Australian National University, include John Braithwaite, Valerie Braithwaite, Peter Grabosky, Neil Gunningham, Fiona Haines, Terry Halliday, David Levi-Faur, Christine Parker, Colin Scott and Clifford Shearing.