UCL WTO Forum: WTO Law and Human Rights (Emily Reid)

WTO Law and Human Rights: A relationship reconfigured through the lens of sustainable development


Dr Emily Reid
Lecturer, University of Southampton

Chaired by Dr Andrew Lang (LSE)

Tuesday 13 October 2009, 6 - 7.30pm 
at UCL Law Faculty

About this event:
The relationship between WTO Law and human rights is one which is frequently framed as one between competing objectives.  In the ‘trade and …’ linkage discourse, WTO law is frequently presented as enjoying primacy, with the question of its relationship with other ‘non-trade’ interests resting on how to accommodate these ‘external’ concerns within the trade regime.  It is argued in this paper that to proceed from this starting point accepts a priori that human rights (and indeed
‘non-economic’ interests more generally) are a (crucially, non-essential) add-on to the pursuit of economic liberalisation.

This paper contends that economic development and human rights protection are in reality mutually supporting and inter-dependent.  It suggests that the principle of ‘sustainable development’ offers a conceptual lens which has the capacity to shed light upon how the relationship between WTO Law and Human Rights law ought to be developed. From this perspective, a practical analysis of the relationship
between WTO Law and human rights law is undertaken.

The EU has been held up as an example of an economic order which has successfully engaged with human rights.  Arguably the relationship between economic liberalisation and human rights in the EU internal market offers one model of the implementation of sustainable development.  The hypothesis that the EU could serve as a model for the WTO in this regard is tested through an analysis of the integration of human rights within the EU legal order. Insights emerging through this analysis are extrapolated for consideration in the WTO context.

About the speaker:
Emily Reid is a Lecturer in Law at the University of Southampton with research interests in European Union and international economic law. Her current work addresses the tension between the pursuit of economic liberalisation and the protection of non-economic interests (including environmental and human rights protection), with particular focus upon the lessons for the international community which can be drawn from EU experience in this field.  Emily is Deputy Director of Southampton's Centre for Law, Ethics and Globalisation (CLEG).  Recent publications include: Free Trade: What is it Good For? Globalisation, Deregulation
and ‘Public Opinion’”, with Jenny Steele; ( 2009) 36 Journal of Law and Society 11-31

WTO Scholars' Forum
The Forum was set up in September 2006 by Dr Fiona Smith of University College London (UCL)’s Faculty of Laws. The Forum’s aims are to bring together leading experts on the law of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for discussions on WTO law and practice. Discussions are both web-based and face-to-face via conferences and smaller seminars. Experts are drawn from legal practice (solicitors and barristers) and leading universities in London and its immediate surrounding area, although there are plans to expand to national coverage. The Forum is  co-directed with Dr Isabelle Van Damme at University of Cambridge.