This chapter recasts empire and its constitution and evolution to recover the most expansive of premodern interpolity systems and its charter. It outlines the evolution of the Mongol system, and provides a view of the empire and its dynastic imperium. It re-establishes the framework of the four Chinggisid Uluses as the main interstate system of the pre-modern world. While the Chinggisid törö governed inter-ruler relations, the Chinggisid jasaq formed the most potent laws that ensured the durability, uniformity and consistency of Chinggisid institutions and practices across the imperium. The 1640 Great Code presents an interpolity system, akin to and surpassing Westphalia and its charter, created within the Chinggisid political tradition and törö. Finally, the chapter uncovers one of the most consequential legacies of Chinggisid statecraft that formed the foundation of the modern state system and modern international order – the Chinggisid concept of ejen – the archetype of the concept that Bodin developed as sovereignty.

This chapter examines the historical development of economic thought concerning international trade, tracing its evolution from early barter systems to contemporary theories. It explores mercantilism, classical theories of absolute and comparative advantage by Smith and Ricardo, and neoclassical economics’ focus on consumer preferences. The chapter delves into imperfect competition, introducing concepts like monopolistic power and product differentiation, which led to ‘New Trade Theory’. It also discusses efficiency maximisation, non-discrimination principles like MFN and national treatment, trade in services, and international vertical integration. The chapter concludes by emphasising the significance of reciprocity in trade relations and the role of the WTO in promoting international cooperation and reducing trade barriers.

A typical narrative of the Tang–Song transition depicts a dire process by which the cosmopolitan and expansionist (and thus strong) Tang dynasty (618–907) gave way to the inward-looking (and thus weak) Song. Despite decades of scholarly refutation, this common perception is still very much alive in the popular imagination. This chapter seeks to exploit the progress in recent scholarship that has helped advance our understanding of the new world order after the collapse of the Tang. I examine how a group of scholars and thinkers who represented the new intellectual trend called Daoxue (Learning of the Way) Neo-Confucianism made sense of the new reality. By situating and analysing their writings within the historical contexts that these texts were written and circulated in, the chapter aims to show how the new world order propelled learned individuals to devise new conceptual frameworks for persuading their compatriots that their ideas about foreigners should be adopted to ensure the survival of the Song state. It also considers Daoxue’s lasting influence in terms of providing a philosophical framework for conceptualising foreign relations during subsequent regimes.

Contributing to non-Eurocentric histories of international law beyond modern public international law and its doctrinal antecedents, this chapter sets Southeast Asian maritime law in relation to the history of regional coastal polities. Anchored in the long-term development of regional maritime networks and political centers, early modern Southeast Asian maritime laws incorporated the practices of Southeast Asian mariners. They reflect both the complex Southeast Asian societies and the transnational political economy of their times. In discussing these laws and their historical context, the chapter offers alternative origins for lex maritima and lex mercatoria.

This chapter extends the discussion of discrimination, as well as the exceptional provisions of Article XX of GATT, and incorporates analysis of the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade, the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, and the General Agreement on Trade in Services to describe the scope of constraint on national governments’ regulatory autonomy.

This chapter explores China’s engagement with international law from the nineteenth century to the 1940s. It examines China’s transition from its traditional world view to acceptance of and participation in international law. Despite the encounter with Western powers in the nineteenth century, China maintained its traditional world view. After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 China began to change its stance, culminating in the establishment of the Republic of China, which embraced international law. Using Confucianism and the concept of tianxia, the chapter examines how Chinese civilization influenced China’s engagement with international law. It also explores how Chinese civilisation contributed to a more inclusive international legal order in the early twentieth century. Ultimately, the chapter aims to demonstrate the continuing relevance of Chinese civilisation in shaping China’s international legal practice and the international legal order as a whole in the twenty-first century.

This chapter discusses the history and evolution of international intellectual property rights (IPRs) protection, focusing on the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement. It examines the justifications for and debates surrounding the extension of developed country-style IPRs to developing nations, as well as the TRIPS provisions themselves. The chapter also addresses the conflicts between TRIPS and other international regimes, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the significant public health concerns raised by TRIPS, particularly regarding access to essential medicines. Finally, it concludes by analysing the distributive impact of TRIPS and the challenges posed by emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.

Based on an in-depth analysis of a few selected cases of commercial dispute and litigation, this chapter illuminates the functioning of the complex and competing legal systems and the mechanisms of dispute resolution among merchants in Surat in western India and Zanzibar in East Africa during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It explores the dynamics of this legal space, the endurance of legal plurality and qualitative changes in it over the period under review. It critically examines the perceived binary between the legal plurality of the pre-colonial period and the legal uniformity and centralization of the colonial period. The chapter argues that merchants usually sought to resolve their commercial disputes through informal negotiations, petitions, arbitration and legal proceedings in courts of law. The analysis of commercial disputes show that despite the emergence of the European (English) colonial legal system across the Indian Ocean arena in the nineteenth century and the colonial state’s push to make the law uniform and implement a single legal system, the normative and customary mechanisms of adjudicating commercial disputes endured in the colonial period.

The revisionist school has asserted that pre-colonial indigenous polities were fluid shadow entities and that pre-British South Asian regimes had no law. This line of argument claims that unique conditions of India prevented the emergence of states with well-defined contiguous territories possessing centralised governments. Ironically this view is reminiscent of colonial British scholars’ argument about pre-colonial India. The argument that pre-British India had no laws and that the ruler’s will was the ultimate authority is incorrect. Rulers of pre-British indigenous polities did not operate in a vacuum, but had to take into account long-established practices, existing procedures and the presence of local powerbrokers. Arabic discourse for the Delhi Sultanate and Turko-Mongol conventions for the Mughals, along with local custom, shaped the legal history of medieval India’s militaries. Overall, the political theorists of the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughal Empire and the ‘Hindu’ dynasties accepted the pivotal role of the monarchy and the army in shaping the structure of interpolity relationships.

This chapter offers a survey of the jus gentium in South East Aasia between the fifteenth and the late eighteenth centuries. It starts by providing an overview of the region and elucidating the challenges inherent in its study. Subsequently, the examination follows three lines of enquiry: first, it explores basic values and principles governing inter-ruler and interpolity relations on the eve of European colonialism around 1450–1500 by discussing and problematising tributary relations. Second, it examines the uniqueness of these relations when juxtaposed with Europe, highlighting key facets such as hierarchy, the prioritisation of people over land, and the forging of alliances with communities of the sea and land. Finally, the chapter plots the transformative impact of European colonial policies and practices, such as the militarisation of maritime spaces, the use of sea passes and the introduction of written agreements and commercial treaties.

Chapter 8 concludes the text with a discussion of key challenges facing future human rights and humanitarian diplomatic efforts: globalization, failed states, and illiberal challenges to existing norms, laws, and values.

This introduction to The Cambridge Companion to World Trade Law introduces the book’s purpose and structure. The volume is intended to be an authoritative and accessible guide to the field, appealing to both legal specialists and those with no specialist knowledge of trade law. It is written by experts and provides a compact discussion of the perspectives, enduring issues, and emergent challenges in the field. The introduction also discusses the current context of world trade, highlighting the divisions in the world following decades of growth and the challenges posed by globalisation. It sets the stage for the chapters that follow.