Episode 11 features Matt Castle, a Senior Lecturer in the Political Science and International Relations Program at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand whose current project explores how negotiators attempt to promote new norms in the trade regime, in the face of institutional and political constraints on innovation.

New global challenges demand new ideas. This is as true in the trade regime as in other areas of international cooperation. Yet by design and happenstance, existing rules and institutions are often resistant to change. Negotiators design global trade rules to provide a stable and predictable institutional environment, and these rules become ‘sticky’ over time. But faced with global challenges like climate change, new rules must emerge. How then do trade negotiators successfully promote new norms in a context that resists such innovation? I first examine the ways in which the trade regime has evolved into a ‘dense’ system of inter-related texts and discuss how this structure constrains the emergence of new ideas. I then look to opportunities for innovation and change. I focus on under-explored areas of the trade regime: agreement renegotiations, ‘side letters’, and ‘marginal’ agreements signed by small players.

The Saving the World Webinar Series is presented by the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse, the series discusses the intersections between climate change, inequity, and human health. The focus is on actions that enable transformative change away from the harmful consumptogenic system to systems that promote good health, social equity and environmental wellbeing.

Event Speakers

Photo of Matt Castle

Matthew Castle

Matthew Castle is a Senior Lecturer in the Political Science and International Relations Programme at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. His research and teaching examine issues in international and comparative political economy, with a particular interest in the politics of trade and trade agreements.

Nicholas Frank

Nicholas Frank

Nicholas Frank is a Laureate Research Fellow with the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse in the School of Regulation and Global Governance. Prior to this, he was an Associate Lecturer in the School of Politics and International Relations at the Australian National University. Nicholas specializes in the political economy of trade and investment governance.

Sharon Friel

Sharon Friel

Sharon Friel is an ARC Laureate Fellow, Professor of Health Equity and Director of the Menzies Centre for Health Governance at the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet), Australian National University. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences Australia and co-Director of the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in the Social Determinants of Health Equity.

Webinar

Details

Date

Location

Online

Cost

Free

Event speakers

Matthew Castle
Nicholas Frank
Sharon Friel

Attachments