Law, Markets, and Globalization (330-0-20)

Instructors

Bruce Greenhow Carruthers
847/467-1251
1808 Chicago Avenue, room 203.
Bruce Carruthers is the John D. MacArthur Professor of Sociology at Northwestern University and a Long-term Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study. He works in the areas of economic sociology, comparative-historical sociology, and the sociology of law, with research funding coming from the National Science Foundation, the American Bar Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Institute for New Economic Thinking, and the Tobin Project. His most recent book, published in 2022 by Princeton University Press, is entitled The Economy of Promises: Trust, Power, and Credit in America.

Meeting Info

555 Clark B01: Tues, Thurs 2:00PM - 3:20PM

Overview of class

This course examines law in the context of recent trends which have increasingly integrated the world's social and economic systems, and which have produced a backlash. Globalization means greater interdependence and less national autonomy. It occurs as international flows of capital, goods, services, and people increase. Transactions, interactions and relationships that formerly occurred within national boundaries now occur across them. But transactions and relationships involving capital, goods, services and people are not self-sustaining. Rather, they are supported and regulated by an institutional foundation that typically centers on the legal system. As part of globalization, particular legal and institutional forms are also spreading throughout the world. Because the legal and institutional frameworks that support these transactions exist primarily at the level of the nation-state, a governance mismatch has emerged. Globalization means that more is going on between national jurisdictions than within them, and tensions arise between competing institutional models. Thus, globalization motivates both an extension of legal systems, and a confrontation between different legal systems that can be resolved conflictually or concordantly. Either outcome leads to institutional convergence. We consider a number of different kinds of law but focus especially on commercial law, quasi-legal trade agreements (e.g., WTO), and commercially-relevant quasi-legal institutions. We pay attention to legal developments in developing and transitional economies, and also consider how the international community deals with significant common problems like economic inequality and global climate change.

Learning Objectives

Students will acquire a more sophisticated understanding of globalization as both a condition and a process, and will appreciate the role that law and legal institutions play in globalization.

Teaching Method

Lecture/discussion in a seminar-like setting.

Evaluation Method

Students will be expected to participate in discussion, to lead discussion, and to write a 12 page (or so) final paper on a topic of their choosing (subject to instructor approval).

Class Materials (Required)

This course will have required books/other materials.

"Dani Rodrik. The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy. New York: W.W.Norton. 2011. ISBN 978-0-393-34128-7.

Class Attributes

Social & Behavioral Sciences Distro Area