Pathology or Plutocracy: The Misery of International Law

In contrast to many other texts in international economic law (IEL), The Misery of International Law reaches beyond the regulatory capacities of the regime, targeting its constructivist character and tracing the conceptions of (in)justice that emerge. Travelling well beyond doctrine, the authors regale readers with a plethora of evidence about how IEL is experienced — frequently suffered — by the world’s masses, building a robust critique that evidences the partialities of IEL. Indeed, when coming to the end of the book, I found myself in possession of a persuasive account of the many injustices of IEL but, foremost, a sense of the deterministic quality of the outcome, the latter of which qualifies their (limited) calls for reform.

In the following review essay, I detail some of the key lessons I take away about the pathological and plutocratic nature of IEL.