Just Trade: A New Covenant Linking Trade and Human Rights

Although highly developed international regimes promoting free trade and advancing human rights are often mischaracterized as mutually incompatible, this excellent study clearly demonstrates their common normative and institutional foundations as well as the complementarity of their respective purposes. In its convincing argument, Just Trade invites us to celebrate and utilize the capacity of free trade and human rights to advance a common agenda.

This work is an ambitious attempt to redefine the relationship between international trade law and the legal and moral principles of international human rights. . .an impressive book that constructs a noteworthy case regarding how trade and human rights law can be reconstituted so that they are largely coterminous and mutually supportive.
-CHOICE

Hernandez-Truyol's and Powell's collective expertise has yielded a highly readable effort designed to end the trade regime's `splendid isolation' from the rest of international law, and especially human rights law. Their text, intended for classroom use, will do much to lessen the unfortunate disconnect between these legal sub-specialities. Theirs is not an idealistic diatribe against the WTO but an honest attempt to marry the undeniable legitimacy of the human rights ideal with the equally undeniable economic benefits of using the law to advance states' comparative advantage. The authors' manifold (and sometimes surprising) examples of the connections between the trade and human rights `borderlands' yield prescriptions for a more humane and sustainable form of trade liberalization.
-Jose Alvarez,author of International Organizations as Law-makers

Professors Powell and Hernandez-Truyol have proposed an ambitious effort to bridge longstanding differences between the business and human rights communities by incorporating human rights and environmental obligations in trade agreements. Their book offers a multitude of new ideas on how a middle ground could be achieved, reflecting the authors' understanding of trade agreements and the challenges of harnessing trade's worldwide power for the advancement of human rights. Whatever one's views on the feasibility of a `new covenant' linking trade and human rights, there is always value in a comprehensive, in-depth discussion of the issues involved. And one cannot help but be impressed by the authors' passionate commitment to constructing a new path forward and their understanding of international law.