We examine the case of an important outsider to the Cobden‐Chevalier network of bilateral treaties in the second half of the nineteenth century. We attempt to explain this through a study of the structure of Danish trade and protection. We demonstrate, in contrast to previous accounts that have considered Danish trade policy somewhat irrational, that Denmark was right to remai...

In the absence of world government, an effective treaty to control the emissions of greenhouse gases should be self-enforcing. A self-enforcing treaty has the property that, if a country expects other countries to abide by the treaty, it will be in the self-interest of that country to abide by the treaty too. (A difficulty with the Kyoto Protocol is that it does not appear to lay the groundwork...

Addressing the increasingly globalised determinants of many important problems affecting human health is a complex task requiring collective action. We suggest that part of the solution to addressing intractable global health issues indeed lies with the role of new legal instruments in the form of globally binding treaties, as described in the recent article of Nikogosian and Kickbusch. However...

In this study new free-trade agreements are discussed, which are based on the breaking down of tariff and technical barriers and normally exclude most of the poorest countries in the world. Considering the current context of economic globalization and its health impacts, seven controversial points of these treaties and their possible implications for global public health are presented, mainly r...

The current climate regime, which focuses on reducing (net) emissions, can be improved in two ways. First, by breaking up the problem, and addressing each part separately, but treating all parts as a system of agreements, new possibilities emerge for enforcement. Second, by incorporating adaptation, “geoengineering,” and the risks associated with mitigation options (such as long term storage of...

The Agreements Treaties and Negotiated Settlements (ATNS) database (www.atns.net.au) is an online gateway and resource that links current information, historical detail and published material relating to agreements made between indigenous peoples and others in Australia and overseas. Designed for use by indigenous and other community organisations, researchers, government and industry bodies, t...

BACKGROUND March 2011 marked the 50th anniversary of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. This legal instrument, the bedrock of the current United Nations based global drug control regime, is often viewed as merely a consolidating treaty bringing together the multilateral drug control agreements that preceded it; an erroneous position that does little to provide historical context for conte...