Hands at work with CAROLA and IGLP logos

On April 13 and 14, 2018, CAROLA and the Harvard Institute for Global Law and Policy (IGLP) hosted the workshop “Rethinking Trade and Investment Law.” The 2-day  workshop brought international economic law scholars and leading social scientists together to analyze problems, explore alternative solutions, and chart new research trajectories for the trade and investment regime. It was organized around roundtables on specific issues in the field. Participants agreed to contribute short, bold, and provocative essays relating to one of the issues, critiquing existing approaches and suggesting new paths. The essays will be published by Anthem Press in a volume designed for rapid dissemination.

Workshop Program

Friday, April 13

8:30am
Breakfast & Introduction

David Kennedy | David Trubek | Alvaro Santos | Chantal Thomas

9:00-10:30am
Author Meets Readers: Dani Rodrik’s “Straight Talk on Trade”

Moderator: David Trubek
Dani Rodrik | James Galbraith | Kevin Gallagher | Alvaro Santos | Chantal Thomas

10:30am
Coffee Break

10:45-12:15pm
Roundtable 1 – Rethinking Investment Agreements

Moderator: Alvaro Santos
Dennis Davis: Bilateral Investment Treaties: has South Africa chartered a new course?
Fabio Morosini: Making the Right to Regulate in Investment Agreements Work for Development: Reflections from the South African and Brazilian Experiences
Nicolás M Perrone: The Tragedy of Foreign Investment in Natural Resources: Can We Govern These Projects Differently?
Comments: Rob Howse & Sonia Rolland

12:15-1:30pm
Lunch

1:30-3:00pm
Roundtable 2 – Reasserting Regulatory Power: Slowing Down or Taxing Flows

Moderator: Chantal Thomas
Kevin P. Gallagher: Trading Away Financial Stability: Trade and Investment Treaties and the Regulation of Cross-border Financial Flows
Frank Garcia: Trade, Consent and the Country Within the Country
Thomas Streinz: Re-Embedding Liberalism: Introducing ‘Passporting Fees’ for Free Trade
Comments: Kerry Rittich & Jason Jackson

3:00pm
Coffee Break

3:15-4:45pm
Roundtable 3 – Retooling Trade Distributive Mechanisms

Moderator: Dan Danielsen
Kerry Rittich: What Remains of Multilateralism? Four theses on Labour Standards
Alvaro Santos: The New Frontier for the Trade & Labor Linkage
Chantal Thomas: Irregular Migration and International Economic Asymmetry
Jamie Galbraith: Exchange Rates and Inequality
Comments: Lucie White & Greg Shaffer

4:45-6:15pm
Roundtable 4 – Managing Institutional Diversity in Global Trade

Moderator: Sonia Rolland
Pasha Hsieh: Rethinking the RCEP in Third Regionalism: Paradigm Shifts in World Trade Law?
Andrew Lang: The Challenge of Institutional Diversity
Gregory Shaffer: Bargaining over Policy Space as a Complementary Dimension to Trade Policy
Comments: Daniela Carusso & Fabio Morosini

7:00pm
Dinner

Saturday, April 14

8:30am
Breakfast

9:00-10:30am
Roundtable 5 – Crisis and Paradigm Shift

Moderator: Greg Shaffer
Poul F. Kjaer: The end of Trade and Investment Law as we know it: From singularity to pluralism
Dan Danielsen: Comparative Advantage Reconsidered: Who Benefits from Trade under Value Chain Capitalism
Sonia Rolland and David Trubek: Embedded Neo-Liberalism and its Discontents: The Uncertain Future of Trade and Investment Law
Comments: Andrew Lang & Robert Wai

10:30am
Coffee Break

10:45-12:15pm
Roundtable 6 – New Frontiers in Global Regulation

Moderator: Andrew Lang
Jason Jackson: The Global Rise and Regulation of Platform Firms and Markets
Rob Howse and Antonia Eliason: Integrating “legal” cannabis into the international trade, investment and finance systems: issues and options
Robert Wai: Transnational Economic Law as Normal Trade Law
Comments: Dennis Davis & Dan Danielsen

12:15pm
Wrap Up & Publishing Discussion