LawandthePoliticalEconomyofthe World.pdf

Leiden Journal of International Law (2013), 26, pp. 7–48 C Foundation of the Leiden Journal of International Law 2013 doi:10.1017/S0922156512000635 INTERNATIONAL LEGAL THEORY Law and the Political Economy of the World∗ ∗∗ DAVID KENNEDY Abstract The interpenetration of global political and economic life has placed questions of ‘political economy’ on the scholarly agenda across the social sciences. The author argues that inter- national law could contribute to understanding and transforming centre–periphery patterns of dynamic inequality in global political economic life. The core elements of both economic and political activity – capital, labour, credit, and money, as well as public or private power and right – are legal institutions. Law is the link binding centres and peripheries to one another and structuring their interaction. It is also the vernacular through which power and wealth justify their exercise and shroud their authority. The author proposes rethinking international law as a terrain for political and economic struggle rather than as a normative or technical substitute for political choice, itself indifferent to natural flows of economic activity. Key words centre–periphery; international law; political economy 1. INTRODUCTION: UNDERSTANDING THE BIG PICTURE : GLOBAL POLITICAL ECONOMY The visible interpenetration of global political and economic life has changed the context for international scholarly inquiry. The central questions today are not polit- ical questions – if by that we mean questions to be addressed by governments acting alone or negotiated through conventional diplomatic circuits. They are not eco- nomic questions – if by that we mean questions to be answered by the operations of markets, guided by the hand of robust competition in the shadow of regulation. Nor are they questions about the appropriate