That big 'fair trade' rule everyone talks about was actually invented a long time ago as a sneaky way for colonizers to play favorites.
While we usually view 'nondiscrimination' laws as inherently progressive, this study reveals that these rules were originally constructed to define who was 'civilized' enough to trade, effectively acting as a legal wall to exclude non-Western and colonial economies.
<p><span>Nondiscrimination As Discrimination: The Mfn Obligation And International Trade Law</span></p>
SSRN · 6468778
There is a widespread sense among international economic lawyers that the most-favored-nation obligation, as the expression of a nondiscrimination norm is fundamental for international trade law. But ought they adorn MFN with its normative halo? This article studies the historical emergence of the MFN-as-fundamental mythology. It shows that this mythology is the outcome of three controversial projects over the course of the twentieth century. Embedded historically, they reveal that much less tha