We ar
e delighted to welcome Dr. Matias Margulis as our next colloquium speaker o
n Tuesday 26th September.We ar
e delighted to welcome Dr. Matias Margulis as our next colloquium speaker o
n Tuesday 26th September.
Dr. Matias Margulis is Associate Professor in the School of Public Policy and Global Affai rs and Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columb ia. His research and teaching interests are in global governance\, developm ent\, human rights\, international law and food policy. He has previously h eld academic positions at the University of Edinburgh\, University of Stirl ing\, University of Northern British Columbia and Max Plank Institute for t he Study of Societies. In 2010-2011\, he was the Cadieux-Léger Fellow at Gl obal Affairs Canada.
Rights Redux: The Return of Human Rights at the World Trade Organization
The conventional wisdom is that human rights have long b een off the negotiating agenda at the World Trade Organization (WTO). The f ailed attempt by Northern states to include a ‘social clause’ in WTO rules during the late 1990s and early 2000s is often cited as having foreclosed b ringing human rights to bear in multilateral trade negotiations. This artic le challenges this traditional view\, by demonstrating that states are mobi lizing human rights at the WTO to shape current global trade rulemaking. Mo reover\, in sharp contrast to the prevailing assumption that developed coun tries are the primary champions of human rights in the trade regime and dev eloping countries the opponents\, I show that developing countries have in fact become key protagonists in marshalling human rights at the WTO. To ill ustrate these claims\, I examine how developing countries have been mobiliz ing human rights norms\, principles and discourse to shape global trade rul emaking in two of the most contentious issues in recent WTO negotiations: t he use of public food stockholding for food security purposes and a TRIPS w aiver to ensure access to COVID-19 vaccines.
No registration is necessary for in-person attendance\, in Geography Room 229.