My goals in this paper are several. First I wish to highlight the enormous tensions between conventional understandings of the trade regime and the current trade agenda. Highlighting these deficiencies can help to open up the intellectual space necessary for a reconceptualization of the trade regime. Moreover, by describing the political implications of the dominant models, I hope to provide a political motivation for such a reconceptualization. Finally, by adopting an interdisciplinary approach, I implicitly emphasize the value of blending insights from multiple perspectives on the same phenomenon.
International trade is, at once, an economic, political and legal phenomenon.
A robust understanding of the trade system should therefore incorporate insights from at least these three disciplines. History has demonstrated that the GATT system has been remarkably adaptive to changing circumstances. This site is part of the Academy of European Law online , a joint partnership of the Jean Monnet Program at Harvard Law School , the Jean Monnet Center at NYU School of Law and the Academy of European Law at the European University Institute.