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INTERNATIONAL TRADE REGIMES AND PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS
Author(s) -
TUMLIR JAN
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
contemporary economic policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.454
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1465-7287
pISSN - 1074-3529
DOI - 10.1111/j.1465-7287.1987.tb00251.x
Subject(s) - negotiation , intellectual property , government (linguistics) , property rights , tariff , diplomacy , law and economics , constitutionalism , democracy , private rights , economics , business , political science , international trade , law , politics , philosophy , linguistics
Regimes such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which require constant management by diplomacy, must deteriorate over time. They are bound by precedent, but their precedents, created by negotiation rather than by law, are unprincipled and cumulatively erode the foundations of the regime. To enshrine the objectives of the GATT more precisely in national law would make private property rights more secure against arbitrary government manipulation, and would serve the logic of democratic constitutionalism. Finally, reform of the GATT should be directed to (a) reducing permissible protection to tariffs, (b) securing nondiscrimination, and (c) providing negotiating and legal opportunities for the binding of tariff schedules.