Fairness in the World Economy: US Perspectives on International Trade Relations

This volume describes the birth (with all the birth defects) of the notion of fairness in the US. The extent of the author's research is quite breathtaking: not only does he delve into an infinite series of official and semi-official documents, but he also looks at case law, opinions expressed in the literature etc., to come up with an expression of (US) fairness that does not suffer from selection bias. But this is only half what the author has accomplished through his work. He goes on to examine how US fairness has been exported to international institutions (such as the GATT/WTO regime) and demonstrates how, once discussed and shaped among all trading partners, it has come back to the US in a different form. The book thus provides both the "inside out" and the "outside in" perspective. It will prove invaluable for the political scientist, the economic historian and the lawyer alike.' - Petros C. Mavroidis, Edwin B. Parker Professor of Law, Columbia Law School, US and University of Neuchatel, Switzerland & CEPR.