Linking Global Trade and Human Rights: New Policy Space in Hard Economic Times

During the global economic crisis of 2008, countries around the world used national policy spaces to respond to the economic crisis in ways that shed new light on the possibilities for linkages between international trade and human rights. This book introduces the idea of policy space as an innovative way to reframe recent developments in global governance. It brings together a wide-ranging group of leading experts in international law, trade, human rights, political economy, international relations, and public policy who have been asked to reflect on this important development in globalization. Their multidisciplinary contributions provide explanations for why the global landscape for national policy space has changed, clearly illustrate instances of this change, and project the future paths for policy development in social and economic policy spaces, especially with reference to linkages between international trade and human rights in countries from the Global North as well as Brazil, China, and India.

Daniel Drache is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Senior Research Scholar at the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies, York University. He has been a research associate at the European University Institute, Florence; a professor invité at CEPREMAP-CNRS, Paris; a visiting scholar at Macquarie University, the University of Western Sydney, and the Australian Graduate School of Management at the University of New South Wales; a guest lecturer at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; and a Ford Foundation visiting professor at JNU New Delhi. His books include Defiant Publics: The Unprecedented Reach of the Global Citizen (2008); The Continental Illusion: Borders and the Search for North America (2006); Borders Matter: Homeland Security and the Search for North America (2004); and The Market or the Public Domain: Global Governance and the Asymmetry of Power (2001).

Lesley A. Jacobs is Professor of Law and Society and Political Science as well as Director of the Institute for Social Research at York University and Executive Director of the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice. He has held a range of visiting positions, including ones at Harvard Law School, Oxford University, Emory University, and the University of British Columbia. He is the author of numerous books, including Privacy Rights in the Global Digital Economy (2013), Balancing Competing Human Rights in a Diverse Society (2012), Pursuing Equal Opportunities (2004), The Democratic Vision of Politics (1997), and Rights and Deprivation (1993).