The Future of International Economic Integration: The Embedded Liberalism Compromise Revisited

As part of the 1947 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), a compromise on domestic socio-economic issues was struck and subsequently given the name 'embedded liberalism'. The Future of International Economic Integration explores the multiple dimensions of the embedded liberalism compromise, to understand its contemporary influence on both the scope and application of international trade law, and on the content and character of parallel domestic socio-economic policy space. Top international economic law scholars have contributed chapters that look at the four principal dimensions of the topic. It sets out the history and character of the embedded liberalism compromise, explores the relationship between the compromise and WTO law, explores areas of contemporary tension that invoke the principles of the compromise such as human rights, cultural diversity, and environmental protection, and investigates what future impact the compromise might have on new trade and investment agreements.

Gillian Moon is Senior Visiting Fellow in the School of Law at the University of New South Wales and at the Australian Human Rights Institute. She specialises in intersections between human rights law, international economic law and development, and the impact of international trade law and foreign investment rules on human rights, equality and development. She has published in leading journals, including Human Rights Law Quarterly, Nordic Journal of International Law, Journal of International Economic Law and Journal of World Trade.

Lisa Toohey is Professor of Law at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales. Her research on trade law has been published in a variety of leading journals, including International and Comparative Law Quarterly, The Chinese Journal of Comparative Law and the Leiden Journal of International Law. She is a Senior Fellow of the Institute of International Economic Law at Georgetown University and an Adjunct Professor of the University of New South Wales, Sydney.