This thesis examines the extent to which international trade law can serve as a means to enforce workers' rights in developing countries, considered from a human rights point of view. / The first chapter examines the protection of the most important workers rights under international law. The basic problem in this protection is that workers' rights are limited in their enforcement. Therefore, international trade measures could be used to enforce these rights. / A first way to use international trade law for the enforcement of workers' rights is by unilaterally imposing a set of workers' rights in the trade relations between two countries. This is the topic of the second chapter. These measures are used in both the United States and the European Community. Unilateral trade measures can be distinguished as non-reciprocal trade aid programs and reciprocal trade relations, the former being much less controversial that the latter from an international law point view. / In the third chapter, multilateral trade measures, the second way to use international trade measures, are discussed. This discussion focuses on the social clause in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade context and similar regimes. This study will demonstrate the position that a social clause is to be favoured, but only as an additional way to enforce workers' rights, and only if changes to the existing procedures are made. / The thesis concludes by calling for a social dimension in international trade regulation, but warns that a social clause in a multilateral trade agreement should be approached with realism and prudence.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.29775 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Vandaele, Arne D. A. |
| Contributors | Provost, Rene (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Laws (Institute of Comparative Law.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001604765, proquestno: MQ54229, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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