Social Constructivism and the Social Construction of World Economic Reality

Forthcoming, Edward Elgar Research HANDBOOK ON THE SOCIOLOGY OF INTERNATIONAL LAW (Moshe Hirsch and Andrew Lang eds. 2017

25 Pages Posted: 31 Oct 2017

Date Written: October 27, 2017

Abstract

In making sense of the world trading system represented by the World Trade Organization (WTO), conventional rationalism aims attention at individual trading nations and their fixed preferences on material benefits, such as expanded access to foreign markets. In contrast with a rationalist optic, this chapter offers a social (constructivist) optic that centres on an emergent normative structure that constitutes WTO members’ identities and guides their actions. The chapter also discusses norm internalization (compliance) as a process in which the WTO reality qua symbolic universe is recognized and maintained in a domestic legal reality. Finally, the chapter addresses various limits of such internalization.

Keywords: Social constructivism, norm internalization, WTO

Suggested Citation

Cho, Sungjoon, Social Constructivism and the Social Construction of World Economic Reality (October 27, 2017). Forthcoming, Edward Elgar Research HANDBOOK ON THE SOCIOLOGY OF INTERNATIONAL LAW (Moshe Hirsch and Andrew Lang eds. 2017, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3060644

Sungjoon Cho (Contact Author)

Chicago Kent College of Law ( email )

565 W. Adams St.
Chicago, IL 60661-3691
United States

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