International Economic Law Interest Group of the European Society of International Law

Purpose and Justification

- 1 -
The ESIL international economic law interest group shall provide European scholars, diplomats and practitioners with a forum in their region to discuss and to jointly promote the law of the global economy and its development.

- 2 -
In the context of the proposal, the notion of international economic law, as it has emerged in European legal thinking and writing in the last decades, is not confined to „trade law" but encompasses the whole global, regional and transnational body of law that has to do with economic acitivities.

- 3 -
The interest group will further be based on the understanding, that Europe, with its values and experiences can importantly and specifically contribute to such international economic law. Diversity, sustainable development and integration are the cornerstones of a distinctively regional profile of economic law, which builds on the experiences of internal integration and external policies. Development, equity and the important contribution of economic stability to peace and security have been of particular concern within Europe as well as in relation to other regions of the world.

- 4 -
This interest group shall work in that spirit and through the means of discussion, joint research projects and possibly joint publications. It shall actively seek and maintain a relationship with other interested groups in other regions and international networks around the world.

- 5 -
The establishment of a special interest group seems to be particularly well suited to the case of international economic law. This area of the law is vast and still not sufficiently well-mapped. Expertise is scattered all over the region and divided between practice, teaching and research. A forum such as a special interest group could bring such expertise together. It also could help international economic law and related disciplines to play their part as a special but integrated part of international law in general, which can both contribute to and learn from significant interactions and overall developments.