ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the growth of international economic law (IEL) and analyzes its tremendous importance to the study of trade and investment. It shows how the insights of legal scholars may enrich the study of global governance. Because politics increasingly takes place in a legal frame, the book explains the politics of international economic law rather than political economy simply stated. The book makes an original argument about the increasing centrality of formal legal mechanisms to the processes and outcomes in the global political economy. It overviews this changing political terrain, particularly as it relates to the institutionalization processes underway in the realm of international economic law. The book brings together disparate literatures in International Political Economy (IPE) and in law around the theme of global governance so as to explore the multidisciplinary possibilities that grow out of these literatures.
