Just Trade

Book excerpt: Documents Annex: http://www.nyupress.org/justtradeannex/index.html It is generally assumed that pro-trade laws are not good for human rights, and legislation that protects human rights hampers vibrant international trade. In a bold departure from this canon, Just Trade makes a case for reaching a middleground between these two fields, acknowledging their coexistence and the significant points at which they overlap. Using actual examples from many of the thirty-five nations of the Western Hemisphere, the authors—one a human rights scholar and the other a trade law expert—carefully combine their knowledge to examine human rights policies throughout the world, never overlooking the very real human rights problems that arise from international trade. However, instead of viewing the two kinds of law as isolated, polar, and sometimes hostile opposites, Berta Esperanza Hernández-Truyol and Stephen J. Powell make powerful suggestions for how these intersections may be navigated to promote an international marketplace that embraces both liberal trade and liberal protection of human rights.