Trade, Labor & Human Rights in the Time of (largely) Neoliberal Globalization: A Basic Reading Regimen

This list of titles was put together to help one make sense of the various (existing or prescribed) interrelations between trade, labor, and human rights during this period of (largely, thus not exclusively) neoliberal globalization. Presidential campaign rhetoric in the U.S. that is—understandably yet regrettably—little more than sloganeering sound bites about previous and proposed bilateral, multilateral, and regional trade agreements, prompted me in the first instance to share works by academic and activist intellectuals that might quicken and hone our attempts to understand these rather complex topics. There is no “one point of view” represented here save for the fact that I have, of course, a decidedly Leftist bias, as do most of the titles. Nevertheless (and not surprisingly for those of us long on the Left!), ample disagreement and different perspectives are found in the material that should compel us to come to our own conclusions, make up our own minds, decide for ourselves where “the truth” is more or less to be found, however tentative and provisional that truth turns out to be. Perhaps needless to say, such truth is decidedly more interesting and complicated (if not labyrinthine) than being for or against “globalization.” 

• Abdelal, Rawi, Mark Blyth, and Craig Parsons, eds. Constructing the International Economy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010. 
• Appelbaum, Richard P. and William I. Robinson, eds. Critical Globalization Studies. New York: Routledge, 2005.  
• Archibugi, Daniele, ed. Debating Cosmopolitics. London: Verso, 2001. 
• Bardhan, Pranab. International Trade, Growth, and Development: Essays. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2003. 
• Bardhan, Pranab, Samuel Bowles and Michael Wallerstein, eds. Globalization and Egalitarian Distribution. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press/New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2006. 
• Barry, Brian and Robert E. Goodin, eds. Free Movement: Ethical Issues in the Transnational Migration of People and of Money. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002.  
• Barry, Christian and Thomas W. Pogge, eds. Global Institutions and Responsibilities: Achieving Global Justice. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005. 
• Basu, Kaushik, Henrik Horn, Lisa Román, and Judith Shapiro, eds. International Labor Standards. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2003.  
• Bhala, Raj. Trade, Development and Social Justice. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2003. 
• Chang, Ha-Joon. Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2008.  
• Cottier, Thomas, Joost Pauwelyn, and Elisabeth Bürgi, eds. Human Rights and International Trade. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. 
• Donnelly, Jack. Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2nd ed., 2003.  
• Forsythe, David P. Human Rights in International Relations. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 
• Gaventa, John and Rajesh Tandon, eds. Globalizing Citizens: New Dynamics of Inclusion and Exclusion. London: Zed Books, 2010.  
• Harrod, Jeffrey and Robert O’Brien, eds. Global Unions? Theory and Strategies of Organized Labour in the Global Political Economy. London: Routledge, 2002. 
• Hepple, Bob. Labour Laws and Global Trade. Oxford, UK: Hart Publishing, 2005.  
• Hurrell, Andrew and Ngaire Woods, eds. Inequality, Globalization, and World Politics. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. 
• Iriye, Akira. Global Community: The Role of International Organization in the Making of the Contemporary World. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2002.  
• Matsushita, Mitsuo, Thomas J. Schoenbaum, and Petros C. Mavroidis. The World Trade Organization: Law, Practice, and Policy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. 
• Moeckli, Daniel, Sangeeta Shah, and Sandesh Sivakumaran, eds. International Human Rights Law. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.  
• Moody, Kim. US Labor in Trouble: The Failure of Reform from Above, the Promise of Revival from Below. London: Verso, 2007. 
• Narlikar, Amrita, Martin Daunton, and Robert N. Stern, eds. The Oxford Handbook on the World Trade Organization. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
• Santos, Boaventura de Sousa and Cesar A. Rodriguez-Garavito, eds. Law and Globalization from Below: Towards a Cosmopolitan Legality. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 
• Shaikh, Anwar, ed. Globalization and the Myths of Free Trade: History, Theory, and Empirical Evidence. New York: Routledge, 2007. 
• Therborn, Göran. The Killing Fields of Inequality. Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2013.