International Economic Law and the Challenges of Global Inequality
CTLS Academic Annual Conference 2015 17-18 April 2015 :: Moot Court Room :: Somerset House East Wing
Increasing economic inequality within and between countries is one of the greatest intellectual and policy challenges of our time. From social movements such as ‘Occupy Wall Street’, ‘We are the 99%’, and the ‘Indignados’, to new treatises including Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty First Century, inequality is centre-stage when we think about the world’s present social and economic condition. The promise of shared prosperity that underwrote economic liberalisation a generation ago remains elusive. Although a few have yielded great benefits from a global economy, many have seen their income stagnate or decline. In many rich countries economic opportunities for youth are bleaker than those of their parents, shattering assumptions of trans-generational progress and social mobility.
These dramatic changes were ushered in by a model of economic liberalization structured at the global and domestic levels by law and regulation. The CTLS Academic Annual Conference will explore whether and how international economic law has helped shaped the current conditions of inequality and whether it might help shape solutions. The conference will focus on four main areas: trade, investment, labour, and tax. The conference will also explore interactions between the different fields and how they may illuminate similar problems from different angles.
Key questions include:
constraints in capacity of the State to regulate economic and social policy;
global regulatory competition in tax, labour, and investment law;
global initiatives to address collective action problems;
asymmetry of global movement of capital and labour;
critiques of the State as the best entity to promote welfare.
Speakers include: Yuri Biondi (Crns - ESCP Europe), Liam Campling (Queen Mary University of London), Simon Deakin (Cambridge University), Julio Faundez (Warwick University), Susan Franck (Washington and Lee University), Robert Howse (New York University), Ann Mumford (King’s College London), Ann O’Connell (University of Melbourne), Federico Ortino (King’s College London), David Quentin (Stone King), Kerry Rittich (University of Toronto), David Schneiderman (University of Toronto), Hila Shamir (Tel Aviv University), Fiona Smith (Warwick University), Robert Wai (Osgoode Hall).
Space at the conference is extremely limited. To request a place please register via EventBrite and our conference support team will be in touch.
Venue Information
The conference will take place in the Moot Court Room, Somerset House East Wing, at King's College London's Strand Campus. Please arrive at the Somerset House East Wing reception and you will be directed to the conference venue.
Founded in 2008, the Center for Transnational Legal Studies is a global partnership of leading law faculties with a shared commitment to addressing pressing problems of transnational law and governance.
