Private Power and Global Authority: Transnational Merchant Law in the Global Political Economy

by A. Claire Cutler

Overview

Claire Cutler's critical analysis of the role that international economic law plays in the creation and maintenance of global power relations examines the historical and contemporary evolution of merchant law. She concludes that private interests have governed global economic relations through practices that are little understood. Interdisciplinary in scope, this study draws upon international relations and law, international political economy and political and legal theories. It will be an important first step toward developing a critical understanding of the political foundations of transnational merchant law.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521533973
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/14/2003
Series:	Cambridge Studies in International Relations , #90
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	6.06(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.79(d)

About the Author

A. Claire Cutler is Associate Professor of International Relations and Law at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. She is joint editor of Private Authority and International Affairs (1999) and Canadian Foreign Policy and International Economic Regimes (1992).

Table of Contents

1. Introduction; 2. Conceptualizing the role of law in the global political economy; 3. Theorizing the role of law in the global political economy; 4. Medieval Lex Mercatoria; 5. State-building: constituting the public sphere and disembedding the private sphere; 6. The modern law merchant and the Mercatocracy; Conclusion: transnational merchant law and global authority: a crisis of legitimacy; Bibliography.

Editorial Reviews

'… a very valuable step towards embracing a more comprehensive view of the complexity of developments in national, international and transnational law … Private Power and Global Authority deserves to be highlighted in many respects … a much needed study in internal relations. It is, in fact, more precisely a crucial report on international affairs.' EJIL

'… constitutes a very valuable step towards embracing a more comprehensive view of the complexity of developments in national, international and transnational law … a worthy attempt to visit and revisit the traditional approaches with which we have all been trained and professionalized … Private Power and Global Authority deserves to be highlighted in many respects … a much-needed study … a crucial report on internal affairs …'. European Journal of International Law

'What is interesting, and of high academic importance, is the way in which the author transcends the mere description of the transnational merchant law and places it into its true historical perspective.' Uniform Law Review

From the Publisher