Abstract
In The Misery of International Law: Confrontations with Injustice in the Global Economy (Oxford University Press 2018), I and my co-authors examine how international law and its regimes of trade, investment, finance, as well as human rights, produce, reproduce, and embed injustice in the global economy. One of the main claims of this work is that international law must abide by the demands of justice if it is to make a call for legitimacy and compliance but that it fails to do so. Building on the book, I will explore three questions. First, I will explain why it is difficult for international human rights law to offer an effective structural frame in which to pursue justice in the global economy. Second, I will explore how the legitimacy of international law might be understood as a question of moral accountability. Finally, I will identify some of what I believe to be the significant barriers to reforming international law for the global economy to avoid objectionable forms of inequality and domination.