8 - Perspectives and implications: some conclusions

Summary

Globalization, by increasing the interdependence among the people of the world, has enhanced the need for global collective action and the importance of global public goods. That the global institutions which have been created in response have not worked perfectly is not a surprise: the problems are complex and collective action at any level is difficult.

Joseph E. Stiglitz, 2002

This book, which has been purposefully kept relatively short, has nevertheless covered a lot of conceptual territory, more than this author expected when he accepted the challenge of the lecture series on which this book is based. As stated early in this work, however, this book is more about queries than theories. The goal has been to raise a series of questions about some of the traditional views concerning the foundations and logic of the general subject of international law, and to relate those views to the subject of international economic law, particularly as represented by the history and practice of the GATT/WTO system.

The complexity of this task is manifest. Although others have tried to develop a “unified theory” of international law and/or international economic law, it is not the desire here to so disguise the complexity and variability of the subject. Rather it is the task of this work to pursue the logic and the empirical observations concerning the subjects to point in directions further along the path towards fulfillment of the important goals for international institutions today, even though this involves “devilish detail.”