Measuring the Economy? The History of Trade and Investment Law between Empire and Empiricism

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This project explores the transformation of knowledge about the global economy in international law. Legal regimes for trade and investment, which govern economic relations between states, measure aspects of the economy in order to make determinations about legal rights and remedies. Over the last decade, some states have drawn on an alternative paradigm of knowledge of the economy, moving away from measurement and market liberalisation to the identification of strategic goods and critical industries. This project will draw on the history and theory of international law to examine the relationship of these concepts to key twentieth-century developments, including the process of decolonisation and questions of how law should govern the relationship between the state and commercial actors. In doing so, it will contribute to understanding the significance of this transformation for ongoing struggles over distribution between and within states.