Papers by Balakrishnan Rajagopal
Am. UJ Int'l L. & Pol'y, 1992
... Somalia, an Italian Trust territo-ry.9 In 1969, after a few years of civilian rule, the milit... more ... Somalia, an Italian Trust territo-ry.9 In 1969, after a few years of civilian rule, the military, led by Gen-eral Mohammed Siad Barre ... clans readily consented to British protection." By the end of 1884 the Ise, Gadabursi, Habar Garhajis, Habar Awal, and Habal Tol Jalo clans had ...
n the twentieth anniversary of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2015, the outlook was sangui... more n the twentieth anniversary of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2015, the outlook was sanguine as negotiators, trade practitioners and academics around the world reflected on the success of the Uruguay Round and the WTO's achievements and contemplated its future at celebratory international conferences. Discussion tentatively turned to a possible future reform agenda but with little sense of urgency. Reform was seen more as potential embellishment rather than necessity. With the adoption of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 and the Paris Agreement on climate change that same year, the world seemed to bask in a warm and inspiring glow of global solidarity. It seemed that the international community was recognizing that assuring our future prosperity depended not only on liberalizing trade but also on achieving environmental sustainability, social and economic equality, political stability and access to justice. But this cooperative spirit proved short-lived and long-simmering dissatisfactions with trade resurfaced, followed by convulsive reversals and a surprising return to protectionism. In 2016, the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, and Donald Trump won the presidency of the United States on a campaign of "America first" in an election in which neither Republican nor Democratic party leaders supported free trade. Despite the evident and widely distributed gains from global trade, 1 populism was fuelling political upheaval and bringing to the fore growing discontent about impacts of trade that had been festering for many years: the hollowing out and decay of once great industrial cities and the individual loss of well-paid and steady factory work. The US administration channelled the popular discontent into nationalist foreign policy, distrust of the rules-based international order, disregard of international ties and commitments, and resort to security exceptions, tariffs and trade wars. The global trading system has been battered by this approach, with growth slowing in 2019 to three percent, according to the International Monetary Fund. And while nations cooperated to resolve the 2008 financial crisis, that urge to work together to solve global issues has been subdued. 2
We were curious to learn whether this declaration signalled that WTO membership and the WTO Secre... more We were curious to learn whether this declaration signalled that WTO membership and the WTO Secretariat would be receptive to including equal representation of women on national delegations, WTO working committees, dispute-settlement panels and in senior management of the WTO Secretariat. We wanted to know whether they would favour using genderbased analysis in policy deliberation, interpretation of the WTO agreements, negotiation of new agreements, dispute settlement and trade policy review. We were interested in knowing whether they would be inclined to work collaboratively with other international
Human Rights Quarterly, 2013
Right to development called for a fundamental transformation of global governance at its origin, ... more Right to development called for a fundamental transformation of global governance at its origin, to enable its full realization by overcoming international barriers to greater influence for the voices of the developing countries in global economic and political decision-making and more solidarity. Twenty five years later, elements of that agenda have in fact been achieved, enabling greater voice and influence for some developing countries, while their very success has raised new challenges to global governance of the future. This articles analyzes key challenges that arise to the future of the right to development due to the 'rise of the rest' and concludes that a fundamental rethinking of the right to development and alternative structural changes in global governance, are needed to realize the moral and political ideals of the right to development.
Academe, 2003
Academic Freedom as a Human Ridit By Balakrishnan Rajagopal Balakrishnan Rajagopal is the Ford In... more Academic Freedom as a Human Ridit By Balakrishnan Rajagopal Balakrishnan Rajagopal is the Ford International Assistant Professor of Law and Development and the director of the Program on Human Rights and Justice at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Defenders of ...
Towards a Cosmopolitan Legality, 2005
CHAPTER 8 LIMITS OF LAW IN COUNTER-HEGEMONIC GLOBALIZATION: THE INDIAN SUPREME COURT AND THE NARM... more CHAPTER 8 LIMITS OF LAW IN COUNTER-HEGEMONIC GLOBALIZATION: THE INDIAN SUPREME COURT AND THE NARMADA VALLEY STRUGGLE Balakrishnan Rajagopal* 8.1 INTRODUCTION Popular struggles have an ambivalent relationship with the law. At one level, they tend to ...
The emergence of transnational social movements as major actors in inter-national politics as w... more The emergence of transnational social movements as major actors in inter-national politics as witnessed in Seattle in 1999 and elsewhere has sent shockwaves through the international system. Many questions have arisen about the legitimacy, coherence and efficiency of the ...
“Right to Development” (RTD) called for a fundamental transformation of global governance at its ... more “Right to Development” (RTD) called for a fundamental transformation of global governance at its origin. This transformation would enable RTD’s full realization by overcoming international barriers to greater influence for the voices of the developing countries in global economic and political decision-making and to more solidarity. Twenty-five years later, elements of that agenda have in fact been achieved, enabling greater voice and influ- ence for some developing countries, while their very success has raised new challenges to global governance of the future. This article analyzes key challenges that arise to the future of the right to development due to the “rise of the rest” and concludes that a fundamental rethinking of RTD and alternative structural changes in global governance are needed to realize the moral and political ideals of the right to development.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
The very meaning of the term 'Third World' has become disarticulated, with corresponding changes ... more The very meaning of the term 'Third World' has become disarticulated, with corresponding changes to the politics and structure of international law. At stake is the question: is international law of any use to the Third World, and if it could be so, how must one rethink it? This article argues that there is now a distinction between hegemonic and counter-hegemonic international law, and that the future of international law and the Third World are intricately intertwined in contributing to a counter-hegemonic international law. But, in order to achieve this goal, the past strategies of Third World engagement through international law, for example through the discourses of human rights and development, need to be seriously rethought. The article offers a critical analysis of the hegemonic nature of human rights and development discourses in contemporary international law.
The multiplication of legal orders is characteristic of what one could call an age of globalizati... more The multiplication of legal orders is characteristic of what one could call an age of globalization and counter-hegemonic globalization. In this age, the relationship between international law and other normative orders is increasingly important. The dominant disciplinary frameworks that provide explanations of such a relationship are focused on compliance with and/or the effectiveness of international norms in domestic legal orders and are derived from international relations. In this article, I examine the limits and possibilities of such approaches through a case study of the use of law (at multiple levels) by one of India's most prominent social movements, the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada). The article argues that the use of law by a social movement is a concrete instance of counter-hegemonic globalization in which international law is one of many different legal orders, a situation of global legal pluralism, in which it is impossible to tell in advance which normative order will best advance cosmopolitan goals such as human rights.
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Papers by Balakrishnan Rajagopal