The purpose of the course is to identify, analyze and evaluate the role of law in the shaping of markets within and beyond the state. Focusing on the institution of the market, this course investigates the role that law plays in global political economy. Such an investigation is not limited to a specific field of law and does not follow a clear-cut separation between \'public\' and \'private\' law, but is genuinely cross-cutting, as are the issues at hand. We will decipher how law influences, both openly and more discretely, the status quo of issues such as the international trade regime and its market access rules, investment protection, corporate accountability for human rights violations, the mobilization of consumers for ethical production and the implications for private autonomy, the distribution of scarce medical goods under a global pandemic, or the accumulation of power by tech giants in the digital economy. Based on this assessment, we will move on to ask if law can be mobilized to remedy or alter some of the skews of the global economy: To what extent can law be part of a solution?
- Docente: Alberto do Amaral Junior