A Political Approach to International Trade Justice

In this thesis I develop a political approach to trade justice, one which accounts for states’
procedural as well as distributive duties towards one another, and which takes the global
distribution of power seriously. The thesis is divided into three parts. In the first part, I set out the
general theoretical framework of my account. Here, I argue that it is the dependence that trade
generates between states which grounds duties of justice between them, before identifying three
distinct duties which are grounded by dependence, namely the duty of recognition, the duty of
stability, and the duty of accountability. Building on this, in the second part of the thesis I discuss
the demands of distributive justice in trade, where I advance a shift-sufficientarian account of
states’ duties. On this account, states have different distributive duties and claims depending on
where they stand in relation to two thresholds of development. When a state crosses one of these
thresholds, there is a change (or ‘shift’) in trade partners’ reasons to benefit that state further, with
duties becoming less demanding above each threshold. The final part of the thesis is concerned
with procedural justice and the institutional character of the trade regime. Here I draw on the neorepublican literature to argue that realizing the three duties of justice identified in the first part of
the thesis requires states to minimize inter-state domination, and that this speaks in favour of
strengthening multilateralism in trade. While the current multilateral organisation, i.e. the World
Trade Organisation, has failed to effectively constrain inter-state domination, I suggest a number
of reforms which, taken together, would give weaker states considerably greater control over the
terms of their economic integration.