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Petersmann, Ernst-Ulrich --- "Constitutionalism and the Regulation of International Markets: How to Define the ‘Development Objectives’ of the World Trading System?" [2009] ELECD 385; in Yueh, Linda (ed), "The Law and Economics of Globalisation" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009)

Book Title: The Law and Economics of Globalisation

Editor(s): Yueh, Linda

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845421953

Section: Chapter 3

Section Title: Constitutionalism and the Regulation of International Markets: How to Define the ‘Development Objectives’ of the World Trading System?

Author(s): Petersmann, Ernst-Ulrich

Number of pages: 44

Extract:

3. Constitutionalism and the
regulation of international markets:
how to define the `development
objectives' of the world trading
system?
Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann

INTRODUCTION: ECONOMIC AND DEMOCRATIC
CONSTITUTIONALISM AS `CATEGORICAL
IMPERATIVES'?

Scientific conceptions ­ for instance, of international economic law ­
often operate as intellectual barriers to alternative, possibly more realistic
conceptions. Just as a fly inside a bottle may see neither the glass barrier
nor the way out, so can power-oriented conceptions of international
law impede mutually beneficial cooperation among free citizens across
national frontiers.1 The economic theory of markets, human rights and
democratic constitutionalism are European inventions par excellence
that have spread over the entire world. Yet, the normative foundations
underlying these European institutions are not universally shared. Just
as the welfare of Florence during the Renaissance was closely linked to
its Republican constitutions and to its open economy, so are the linkages
between constitutions, open markets and economic welfare in the EU
obvious to Europeans. For example, not only are all 27 member states
of the European Community (EC), just as all 47 member states of the
Council of Europe, committed to the need for `European constitutional
law', as acknowledged in the judicial interpretation of the European
Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) by the European Court of
Human Rights (ECtHR), and of the EC Treaty by the European Court
of Justice (ECJ), as `constitutional charters' protecting fundamental
freedoms and constitutional democracy. All European states also par-
ticipate in the worldwide negotiations on far-reaching legal reforms of
the ...