Deborah Z. Cass
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199285846
- eISBN:
- 9780191713798
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199285846.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Private International Law
This is a book about the constitutionalization of the World Trade Organization, and the contemporary development of institutional forms and democratic ideas associated with constitutionalism within ...
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This is a book about the constitutionalization of the World Trade Organization, and the contemporary development of institutional forms and democratic ideas associated with constitutionalism within the world trading system. It is about constitutionalization enthusiasts who promote institutions, management techniques, rights discourse, and quasi-judicial power to construct a constitution for the WTO. It is about constitutional sceptics, who fear the effect the phenomenon of constitutionalization is having on the autonomy of states; the capacity of the WTO to consider non-economic and non-free-trade goals; and democratic processes at the WTO and within the nation-state. The aim of the study is to disentangle debates about the various meanings of the term ‘constitution’ when it is used to apply to the World Trade Organization, and to reflect upon the significance of those meanings for more general international law conceptions of constitutions. It argues that the WTO is not and should not be described as a constitution either by the standards of any received account of that term, or by the lights of any of the current WTO models. Under these definitions, serious issues of legitimacy, democracy, and community are at stake. The WTO would lack a proper political structure to balance the work of its judicial bodies; it may curtail the ability of states to decide matters of national economic interest; it lacks authorization by a coherent political community; and it risks an emphasis upon economic goals and pure free trade over other, equally important, social values. Instead, the book argues that what is needed is a constitutionalized WTO which considers the economic development needs of states and takes account of the skewed playing field of international trade and its effect on the economic prospects of developing countries. In short, trading democracy, legitimacy, and community, and not trading constitutionalization, are the biggest challenges facing the WTO.Less
This is a book about the constitutionalization of the World Trade Organization, and the contemporary development of institutional forms and democratic ideas associated with constitutionalism within the world trading system. It is about constitutionalization enthusiasts who promote institutions, management techniques, rights discourse, and quasi-judicial power to construct a constitution for the WTO. It is about constitutional sceptics, who fear the effect the phenomenon of constitutionalization is having on the autonomy of states; the capacity of the WTO to consider non-economic and non-free-trade goals; and democratic processes at the WTO and within the nation-state. The aim of the study is to disentangle debates about the various meanings of the term ‘constitution’ when it is used to apply to the World Trade Organization, and to reflect upon the significance of those meanings for more general international law conceptions of constitutions. It argues that the WTO is not and should not be described as a constitution either by the standards of any received account of that term, or by the lights of any of the current WTO models. Under these definitions, serious issues of legitimacy, democracy, and community are at stake. The WTO would lack a proper political structure to balance the work of its judicial bodies; it may curtail the ability of states to decide matters of national economic interest; it lacks authorization by a coherent political community; and it risks an emphasis upon economic goals and pure free trade over other, equally important, social values. Instead, the book argues that what is needed is a constitutionalized WTO which considers the economic development needs of states and takes account of the skewed playing field of international trade and its effect on the economic prospects of developing countries. In short, trading democracy, legitimacy, and community, and not trading constitutionalization, are the biggest challenges facing the WTO.
Donna T. Haverty-Stacke
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479851942
- eISBN:
- 9781479891627
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479851942.003.0004
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
Chapter 4 examines the efforts of the defense team, led by Albert Goldman, who saw the trial as an opportunity to fight not just for free speech, but also for trade union democracy and for the ...
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Chapter 4 examines the efforts of the defense team, led by Albert Goldman, who saw the trial as an opportunity to fight not just for free speech, but also for trade union democracy and for the legitimacy of the SWP. As they had since the grand jury handed down the indictments, the defendants insisted on the applicability of the clear and present danger test to their situation, arguing that it rendered them innocent and made the Smith Act unconstitutional. Even though their motion to have this test applied to the second count of the indictment (the Smith Act count) was denied by the court at the outset, Goldman and his team remained committed to this argument. This chapter examines the testimony of leading SWP defendants—James Cannon, Vincent Dunne, Farrell Dobbs, and Grace Carlson—including Cannon’s famous assertion of workers’ rights to self-defense. It explains how the defense team ultimately failed and how eighteen of the defendants were convicted of violating the Smith Act and sentenced to prison.Less
Chapter 4 examines the efforts of the defense team, led by Albert Goldman, who saw the trial as an opportunity to fight not just for free speech, but also for trade union democracy and for the legitimacy of the SWP. As they had since the grand jury handed down the indictments, the defendants insisted on the applicability of the clear and present danger test to their situation, arguing that it rendered them innocent and made the Smith Act unconstitutional. Even though their motion to have this test applied to the second count of the indictment (the Smith Act count) was denied by the court at the outset, Goldman and his team remained committed to this argument. This chapter examines the testimony of leading SWP defendants—James Cannon, Vincent Dunne, Farrell Dobbs, and Grace Carlson—including Cannon’s famous assertion of workers’ rights to self-defense. It explains how the defense team ultimately failed and how eighteen of the defendants were convicted of violating the Smith Act and sentenced to prison.
