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In response to concern about the model of trade and investment liberalization reflected in existing and proposed trade and investment agreements (TIAs), efforts have been made to balance the economic orientation of trade with social considerations. One proposal that has garnered significant attention in this regard is the social clause (SC): a set of labour rights to be attached to the text of TIAs. Although the idea of including labour rights in TIAs seems laudable, significant opposition to the particular SC recommendations developed by Canadian and international labour organizations has emerged. Some critics charge that the addition of a clause to TIAs will not only prove unproductive, but will actually serve to legitimate problematic aspects of these agreements. Others insist that the content of the SC will exacerbate existing inequalities in the international trade order. In this thesis, I reconstruct debate over the SC to determine whether this instrument can effectively contribute to the realization of a more socially responsible trade and investment regime. Using proposals advanced by the Canadian Labour Congress as a key point of reference, I argue that there are resources available to clause proponents to respond to claims that the SC is an inadequate approach to the goal of resisting the current model of liberalization. As such, there is room to resist the conclusion that the SC should be rejected in its entirety. While it may be possible to preserve the SC approach, however, the same cannot be said about the content of current clause proposals. Criticisms of the narrow range of issues covered by existing SC recommendations clearly demonstrate that a rethinking of the content of the clause is not only warranted, but also necessary. Accordingly, I conclude by exploring three considerations that should be factored into the development of what would constitute a more adequate SC: first, existing patterns of inequality in the international trade system; second, the range of issues addressed by the clause; and third, the location of the clause within the context of the international trade regime.

In the context of economic globalisation, the unequal distribution of wealth among nations often leads to infringe fundamental workers' rights, so that it has become a major concern for politicians, scholars, jurists and NGOs. Therefore the question is how the social market can be regulated today. The ILO is the first international organisation that has dealt with workers' rights, especially fundamental rights, its goal being to protect workers universally. If its legitimacy had been unquestioned for years, it is shattered by external economic factors today: state's loss of power in regulating social relations, the emergence of new political counterbalances on the international scene---unknown by international public law---and self-governance by social labels or codes of conducts. The author will attempt, by a critical appraisal, to demonstrate that the ILO has its own constitutional and logistical means to implement fundamental workers' rights efficiently and independently: union freedom and collective negotiation, prohibition of hard labour, prohibition of child labour, prohibition of discrimination. According to the author, the ILO is undergoing an institutional transition. The latter is adapting to the new economic context. In Geneva centralised procedures are still very centralised but they are in the same time counterweighted by local actions or soft procedures. These more flexible and discrete procedures are the keystone of the ILO system of supervision to implement fundamental rights. Finally it is relevant to have a look at regional organisations which deal with those fundamental rights, as they have a special role in implementing the ILO fundamental rights.

Thesis (LLM)--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (LL.M.)--University of Melbourne, 2001. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 154-172).

Published also as Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University. / "Bibliography of printed sources": p. [464*]-473*.

Thesis (doctoral)--Friedrich-Alexander-Universität zu Erlangen.

Thesis (doctoral)--Philipp-Universität zu Marburg.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Köln.