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An important read for academics and policy-makers alike, Hard Choices, Soft Law asserts that voluntary standards, or 'soft' law, are an important supplement to international law in a number of areas. This key work firstly outlines the approach taken to combining soft and hard law and trade, environment and labour values in the WTO and NAFTA, and in the prospective Millennium Round. Then, using the forestry sector - a realm where formal international law remains largely absent - the book provides a detailed examination of the role of soft law in action. It demonstrates how soft and hard law can be combined to promote trade, environmental and social cohesion, in ways that also permit sustainable development. The book presents a wealth of knowledge from a range of contributors familiar with the work of the G7/G8, the OECD, the Biodiversity Convention and the Codex Alimentarius. Contents: Introduction: hard choices and soft law in sustainable global governance, John J. Kirton and Michael J. Trebilcock. Setting Standards for Sustainable Forestry: Nonstate global governance: is forest certification a legitimate alternative to a global forest convention?, Steven Bernstein and Benjamin Cashore; The Forest Stewardship Council: a developing country perspective, Tasso Rezende de Azevedo; Indigenous rights and forest certification in British Columbia, Chris Tollefson. Setting Standards for Labour: Codes of corporate conduct and the labour regulatory state in developing countries, Adelle Blackett; Standard setting at the International Labour Organization: the case of precarious employment, Leah F. Vosko; Hard law or soft law: India and international labour standards, C.S. Venkata Ratnam and Anil Verma; Trade policy and labour standards: objectives, instruments and institutions, Michael J. Trebilcock. Creating Codes of Corporate Responsibility: Corporate social responsibility and the evolution of international norms, Hevina S. Dashwood; The role of nongovernmental organizations and social movements in developing countries, John W. Foster; Multinational corporations, globalization and the challenge of self-regulation, Wesley Cragg; Canadian corporate responsibility in Sudan: why Canada backed down, Robert O. Matthews. International Institutions and Soft Law: The World Trade Organization, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the challenge of sustainable development, Thomas A. Hockin; Integrating environment and labour into the World Trade Organization, Roy MacLaren; The future of the world trading system: beyond Doha, Sylvia Ostry; Enhancing global governance: corporate social responsibility and the international trade and investment framework, Christopher Wilkie; A corporate perspective on globalization, sustainable development and soft law, Michael E. Cloghesy; Terminating agricultural biotechnology? Hard law, voluntary measures and the life sciences industry, Lisa N. Mills; Hard and soft law in international institutions: complements, not alternatives, Nicholas Bayne; Bibliography; Index.

Offering a unique cross-disciplinary approach to scholarship in law and economics, this much-needed work expounds and critically evaluates all of the major doctrines of Canadian competition policy. The topics addressed, each in a separate chapter, include: Canadian competition policy in an historical context; basic economic concepts; multi-firm conduct; horizontal agreements; the merger review process; predatory pricing and price discrimination; vertical restraints; intra-brand competition; inter-brand competition; abuse of dominance; competition policy and intellectual property rights; competition policy and trade policy; competition policy and regulated industries; and enforcement. The treatment of each substantive topic is organized first around a discussion of the relevant body (or bodies) of economic theory and then the pertinent bodies of legal doctrine, including case law. Each chapter contains a critique of existing law in light of contemporary economic theory. This is the only book available that offers an up-to-date integrated analysis of economic theory and legal doctrine in the context of Canadian competition policy.

Faced with increased levels of international competition and mounting budget deficits some developed, Western economies have responded by introducing trade restrictions. This book uses a comparative analysis of eight leading industrial nations (including Japan, the United States, West Germany and Britain) to demonstrate that such policies are mistaken. Alternatives to trade restrictions, including subsidies for industries and labour-market policy instruments are also shown to have their drawbacks, and the book emphasises the need for countries to find and exploit policies which fulfil their own political and social needs but which are least injurious to their trading partners.

This paper canvasses the theoretical and empirical literature concerning the role that legal institutions play in development. The first part outlines six influential theoretical perspectives on development and their implications for the relationship between law and development. The second part surveys the relevant empirical literature. There is surprisingly little conclusive evidence that reforms in particular substantive areas of law such as property law, contract law and human rights law have been effective in furthering development, however conceived. There is, however, evidence that enhancing the quality of institutions that enact, administer and enforce laws can have positive and significant effects. This suggests that the current wave of legal reforms must be situated in a broader agenda of public sector reform if they are to avoid the problems that led to the demise of the 'law and development' movement of the 1960s.

This paper examines the short-lived electricity sector restructuring initiative of the province of Ontario, Canada's largest province. In May 2002, following years of planning and consultation Ontario opened its retail and wholesale electricity markets to competition. The summer of 2002 saw retail prices reach levels that consumers had never previously encountered. By December 2002, the provincial government froze retail electricity prices, covering approximately half of Ontario's electricity consumption. While the weather played a significant role in driving prices higher during the summer of 2002, other factors also played a major role. The other factors reviewed in this paper fall into two categories. The first category consists of market design problems, such as market rules (e.g., trading arrangements) and market structure (e.g., the degree of competition in the generation sector). The second category covers political economy problems, in particular the lack of political will to allow retail prices to reflect wholesale prices and to address effectively structural problems in the sector. Finally, this paper examines some of the new restructuring initiatives being pursued by the recently elected provincial government of Ontario as the province continues to struggle to bring order to its electricity sector.