Judge Knot explores the biggest and the most controversial success story in international law: investor-state dispute settlement, or ISDS. Since 1990, investors have launched hundreds of claims against government regulation. This exclusive inside look explains what makes the system tick: its poorly understood centuries-old origins, why corporations demand investment law solutions to political problems, how arbitrators supply these solutions, and why the system lasts despite the many politicians and citizens unhappy with it. Building off of an unprecedented set of interviews with the arbitrators who actually decide the cases, Judge Knot brings together the best of political science, law, and development economics scholarship and offers a concrete alternative to ISDS that leverages what works about the system and discards what does not, so that international law can be more supportive of democracy and development goals.
Advance Praise for Judge Knot:
“Judge Knot penetrates the dense and tangled thicket of arbitration of disputes between companies and states around the world. It rejects facile critiques of these processes from the right and the left, offering instead a thoughtful and imaginative set of prescriptions for democratizing global trade and investment. Lawyers, judges, and activists will find much interesting and original material.”
– Anne-Marie Slaughter, President & CEO, New America
“The world of international investment disputes may seem an obscure domain populated by narrow if upright lawyers speaking in esoteric languages. In this path-breaking work, Todd Tucker shows how it is actually where an epic power struggle is being fought between governments, corporations, and citizens. If you want to understand the future of our economic world, you must read this book.”
– Ha-Joon Chang, Director of Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge, Author of Kicking Away the Ladder and Economics: The User’s Guide
“Lawyers, economists and lay people alike: read this book. Tucker’s lively narrative and crystal clear explanations make buoyant a wonky subject matter. Deeply researched and well-sourced, Judge Knot: Politics and Development in International Investment Law is packed with fascinating case studies and insight into why the international law exists as it does today, and leavened by entertaining anecdotes. It may very well be the first book on international investment law that you can, in good faith, recommend to a friend.”
– Haley Edwards, Correspondent, Time Magazine, Author of Shadow Courts: The Tribunals That Rule Global Trade
Pre-order your copy of “Judge Knot” (Anthem Press, 2018) at Amazon or wherever fine books are sold.
Todd N. Tucker, PhD 
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