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69 UMKC L. Rev. 733 (2000-2001)
Legitimacy, Globally: The Incoherence of Free Trade Practice, Global Economics and Their Governing Principles of Political Economy

handle is hein.journals/umkc69 and id is 743 raw text is: LEGITIMACY, GLOBALLY: THE INCOHERENCE OF FREE TRADE PRACTICE, GLOBAL ECONOMICS AND THEIR GOVERNING PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY Michael H. Davis* & Dana Neacsu* Money is a good soldier, sir, and will on' Illegal is purely a matter of geography2 INTRODUCTION In this article, we observe the legalized character of the phenomenon popularly called globalization. We first examine what it means to be a legal- ized phenomenon and observe that an important part of legalization is legitima- tion. In domestic legal regimes, legitimation is accomplished through the Rule of Law, which makes certain claims about the nature of the society of which the legal regime is a part. Simply stated, the Rule of Law claims that a legal system is legitimate if its rules are definite and predictable and are applied in a general, impartial, and non-retroactive manner.3 In the international trading system of which globalization is the legalized regime, the legitimizing role is played by the so-called law of comparative advantage, developed originally by David Ricardo. Simply stated, the law of comparative advantage claims that all nations, not just the richest or most powerful, can profit from unhindered international trade, since each country can exploit and thus profit from its own particular advantages, even while it pays others for goods produced elsewhere.4 This globalized legitimation, similar to domestic legitimation, makes certain claims about the nature of the system of which the globalized regime is a part. We then examine what particu- lar features of globalization are supported by the law of comparative advantage, and we note how the legitimating role of that law conceals the true nature of those features. Finally, we observe that globalization and those features we have . Professor of Law, Cleveland State University College of Law. This article was supported by a grant from the Cleveland-Marshall Fund. It was also supported by the extraordinary efforts of Marie Rehmar, reference law librarian at CSU, as well as the assistance of Kemal Becirspahic dit Becir of GERPISA at the Universit6 d'.vry-Val d'Essonne, France. .. Dana Neacsu is a reference librarian at the Arthur W. Diamond Law Library of the Columbia University Law School and a New York attorney. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR act 2, sc. 2. 2 DEAR BRIGITTE (Twentieth Century Fox 1965). See ALBERT V. DICEY, INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE LAW OF THE CONSTITUTION 234-409 (8th ed. 1927); ROBERTO M. UNGER, LAW IN MODERN SOCIETY: TOWARD A CRITICISM OF SOCIAL THEORY 176-77 (1976), discussed infra nn. 33-34 and accompanying text. 4 See DAVID RICARDO, ON THE PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, AND TAXATION 313 (Ronald M. Hartwell ed., Penguin Books 1971) (1819), discussed infra nn. 94-100 and 201, and accompanying text. Illustrating one of the central problems of the law of comparative advantage - its indefiniteness - some will take issue with this description since, as Ricardo formulated it using only two countries, it applied only bilaterally. Its modern articulation nonetheless insists, however inaccurately, that the law works in the multinational context. 733

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