For centuries, international trade has been seen as essential to the wealth and power of nations, and defended as a system through which all could benefit. It is only recently that trade’s problematic role as an engine of distributive justice has begun to be understood, due in part to globalization and the global justice debates. In this compelling new book, international legal scholar Frank J. Garcia proposes a radically new way to evaluate, construct, and manage international trade – one that is based on norms of economic justice as well as comparative advantage and national interest. This book examines three different ways to conceptualize the problem of trade and global justice – three “takes” on this relationship – drawn from Rawlsian liberalism, communitarianism, and consent theory. These three approaches illustrate specific issues of a general or systematic importance to the way global justice has been theorized. Through these takes the book offers an alternative, pluralistic mode of arguing for global justice, and highlights the unique modes of discourse we employ when engaging with global justice and their implications for how we conceptualize and argue the problem. From this analysis, Garcia suggests a new direction for trade agreements built around the possibility of truly consensual trade negotiations and the kind of international economic system they would structure.
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