Book launch: “Principles of International Economic Law”

Presentation of the book “Principles of International Economic Law”
by Professor Dr. Matthias Herdegen (Oxford University Press).

In his book "Principles of International Economic Law" published at Oxford University Press last January, Matthias Herdegen offers a comprehensive overview of the central topics in international economic law, with an emphasis on the link between legal developments and their political, economic and social background.
Professor Herdegen analyzes central topics of international economic law ranging from WTO law to investment protection, commercial law and monetary law in context with human rights, environmental protection, good governance, and the needs of developing countries. Furthermore, Matthias Herdegen investigates the interplay between the different economic and political interests on both the international and domestic levels. He puts into profile the often complex relationship between, on the one hand, international standards on liberalization and economic rationality and, on the other, state sovereignty and national preferences.
Yet how is this meshwork of normative orders affected by the fact that we live in a global world that is pervaded by legal cultures of various provenance with different basic assumptions and differences even regarding the concept of law itself?
Professor Dr. Dr. Rudolf Dolzer (Bonn, Institute of Public International Law) will present the book. The presentation of the book will be followed by a discussion on the topic "International Economic Law and Diversity of Legal Cultures". Invited to provide commentary and participate in the discussion are Professor Dr. Erika de Wet (Co-Director of the Institute for International Law and Comparative Law in Africa at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, Professor for International Constitutional Law at the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands and lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Bonn) as well as Pravin H. Parekh (New Delhi, Senior Advocate at the Supreme Court of India). Further, Merel Alstein, Associate Editor at Oxford University Press, will offer some words of welcome to those in attendance.
Matthias Herdegen is Director of the Institute of Public Law (Institut für Öffentliches Recht) and Director at the Institute of Public International Law (Institut für Völkerrecht) of the University of Bonn. His main research interests lie, inter alia, in the fields of constitutional law, European law, international business law, international law and biotechnology law. Since October 2012, Matthias Herdegen is Fellow at the Käte Hamburger Center for Advanced Study in the Humanities "Law as Culture".