The Rise of Preferential Agreements in Global Economic Governance: An Introduction

We are experiencing a tumultuous period in global politics, with international economic governance facing a period of great uncertainty. Meanwhile, since the de facto collapse of the WTO’s Doha Round, a plethora of preferential agreements has begun to supplant the WTO’s rule-making function and to regulate the previously separate fields of international trade law and international investment law. This Special Issue has two objectives: to contribute to a greater understanding of the dynamics of preferential agreements as a source of new norms of global governance and their impact on the existing international trade and investment regimes, and to identify the implications that these developments have for States in their capacity as treaty negotiators and domestic regulators.