Course info

This module looks at the interaction between principles governing international trade and foreign direct investment on the one hand, and principles governing respect for human rights on the other. International trade and investment have two different impacts on basic rights: they can strengthen respect for them, as will be seen when trade sanctions are imposed to force a country to comply with certain standards, or they can be a medium by which those rights are weakened, as will be seen when considering the pressures of free movement of capital, goods and services that are at the heart of trade and investment regimes, and can potentially weaken environment protection, access to medicines, and protections for labour.

These relationships between rights, trade, and investment are examined in;

i) The standards set by the GATT /World Trade Organization and certain regional trade agreements; and
ii) World Bank policies, investment treaties between states, and agreements between multinational companies and states.

On the side of basic rights, we examine:

i) international labour rights;
ii) international environmental standards that raise human rights issues; and
iii) standards governing intellectual property rights and the right to the highest attainable standard of health.

These rights and their relationship to trade and investment are important per se, but also contain principles that can be applied to other rights, such as the right to an adequate standard of living. Students often explore these in their essays and dissertations.

Along with the law, attention is paid to the ethical, political, and economic arguments that provide an essential framework to understanding the concrete issues. We look closely at the ways fundamental rights can be made operational in an economic context; at the relationship between basic rights and wealth creation; at the role played by state sovereignty in regulating economic relations, and at the operations of the World Trade Organization and World Bank that raise human rights issues. The course combines these general considerations with detailed treatment of some concrete cases so as to see the practical effect of linking trade and fundamental rights.

Students will have the opportunity to do practical work in this area with the Essex Business and Human Rights Project (http://www.essex.ac.uk/ebhr/) and the Human Rights Law Clinic

Topic Outline
1. Trade, Standards, and Rights: Background Issues
2. The opening of markets; the integration of markets; and the protection of basic rights and standards
3. Free trade, investment and fundamental rights: WTO; World Bank, and transnational investment agreements
4. Market integration and fundamental rights:
5. Trade, investment and issues of sustainable development
6. The impact of international trade and investment on
a. International labour rights
b. Standards of environmental protection
c. Intellectual property rights and the right to the highest attainable standard of health.