This book attempts to bridge a perceived divide between international trade law and the protection of human rights in international law. It seeks to appeal beyond lawyers and law students to economists, professionals and academics in related fields. As the authors acknowledge in their general introduction, the book is a product of a creative partnership between two American law professors who have very different attitudes towards the subject matter. Professor Hernández-Truyol has a background in race and gender studies and teaches human rights and Latin American legal theory; Professor Powell was a government lawyer in the US Department of Commerce and now teaches international trade law. With a tangential nod to the debate whether general international law is fragmenting into various lex speciali, this collaboration is a well-meaning attempt to pull together two areas of international law whose norms may not appear on first sight to be mutually reinforcing. The premise of the authors is to bring ‘the idealism of the human rights model and the pragmatism of the trade model to broaden the reach of the economic well-being that, to date, the systems in their splendid isolation have brought to too few.’Footnote ⁵

The first four chapters aim to be a ‘basic primer’ on international law, although the authors recognize that substantial further reading is obviously recommended. Chapters 5 to 13 constitute the core of the book, which cover common themes in which international trade and human rights law have a bearing: citizenship; health; trafficking; poverty; democracy. In discussing these themes, the authors examine closely GATT and the WTO, litigation arising between States out of trade matters, and the important human rights implications at stake. Of particular interest to the authors is Article XX of GATT, which creates General Exceptions under which States may restrict trade under certain conditions in order to protect public health and welfare. The authors contend that Article XX allows States to enforce environmental protection, ILO labour standards, intellectual property protection for indigenous peoples' traditions and much else. Article XX is in truth the hook on which much of the rest of the argument is hung: for the authors, their assumption is that: ‘Without oversight and regulation, governments will squander trade's opportunities for the advancement of human rights.’Footnote ⁶

The authors draw conclusions in chapters 14 and 15. They note at page 265 that: ‘The United States imposes economic sanctions principally to support civil and political rights.’ In the opinion of the authors, economic sanctions can work to achieve such ends, but all too often disproportionately visit suffering on the poor in breach of their human rights. The book ends with a stirring synthesis that asserts: ‘Economic expansion not only is consistent with responding to human rights obligations, but is emboldened precisely to the extent of that response.’Footnote ⁷ The view of the authors is that State practice within the WTO recognizes the centrality of human rights protections in international trade, and is moreover reinforced by accepted principles such as the Global Harm Principle, pacta sunt servanda, and more tenuous ideas, such as regarding corporations as State actors.

This book is provocative and well written. It is worth a read. There must be few works of international law which begin with a quotation from Homer's Odyssey, whilst going on to discuss themes that are timely and topical.