Faundez, Julio --- "International Economic Law and Development: Before and After Neo-Liberalism" [2010] ELECD 626; in Faundez, Julio; Tan, Celine (eds), "International Economic Law, Globalization and Developing Countries" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: International Economic Law, Globalization and Developing Countries

Editor(s): Faundez, Julio; Tan, Celine

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848441132

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: International Economic Law and Development: Before and After Neo-Liberalism

Author(s): Faundez, Julio

Number of pages: 24

Extract:

2. International economic law and
development: before and after neo-
liberalism
Julio Faundez*

1. INTRODUCTION

Two features have characterised international economic law (IEL) during
the recent period of rapid and seemingly unrestrained economic globaliza-
tion: its emergence as the most important field of international law and its
close association with the ruling paradigm of development, as embodied in
the celebrated Washington Consensus.
The rise to prominence of IEL is a novel development. Indeed, until
recently, IEL rules were not regarded as real law, even by the undemand-
ing standards of legal validity and efficacy applied by most international
lawyers. As a consequence, courses devoted to general international law
rarely covered IEL. Most international law treatises and textbooks either
ignored it or dedicated only a short chapter noting that there were few
rules in this area and that most of them were either not binding (such as
the numerous rules in the GATT Agreement) or highly contested (such as
those in the area of international investment law).
From the 1980s, however, after the outbreak of the current wave of glo-
balization, IEL underwent a massive transformation to become the most
important field of international law. Its importance is confirmed by three
different measures: volume, scope and efficacy. The volume of new inter-
national economic rules is reflected in the large number of multilateral
and bilateral treaties on matters relating to trade, finance and investment
and in the numerous decisions by international economic organisations and
other bodies that set standards and voluntary ...