ABSTRACT

This chapter argues that much of the study of international economic law is rooted in the methods and theory of legal scholarship, and these offer several promising additions to a multidisciplinary scholarship. To show the potential in multidisciplinarity, the chapter discusses three broad schools of legal theory that may inform International political economy (IPE): Functionalism, constitutionalism and socio-legal approaches. The chapter offers two research approaches that are evolving across these scholarly contexts. It examines international economic law as a policy science, arguing that rational choice institutionalism and other approaches rooted in the ontological assumptions of neoclassical economic theory may benefit from functional understandings of international economic law. The chapter also argues that the new legal realism has much to offer constructivist and critical analytic approaches to international economic law (IEL). It suggests that the critical political economy tradition is enriched by the inclusion of socio-legal perspectives on the role of law in global governance.