The Divide between Human Rights, International Trade, Investment and Development Law

The article comprehensively reconstructs the historical developments that have led to the particular evolution of human rights law as distinct from international trade and investment law as well as international development law. It submits that one of the causes of the current crisis of the international human rights regime lies in its relative isolation from these other domains of global governance. It thus argues for the desirability to overcome such a separation and examines prospects of feasibility. China’s new international human rights diplomacy is critically assessed amongst current efforts to bridge normative and institutional divides that could pave the way for human rights-coherent economic and development policies