Why TTIP is a game-changer and its critics have a point

The heated scholarly and public debate on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has centred predominantly on two questions. Firstly, is there something particularly special about TTIP, other than the fact that it involves the world’s largest trading partners? And, secondly, is the concern about TTIP’s deleterious effects justified? The starting point for our argument is that understanding an agreement like TTIP requires an emphasis on the socially constructed nature of reality. TTIP is ultimately novel in terms of the regulatory scope of its provisions and it is problematic because it subtly promotes the (socially constructed) interests of those who merely see regulation as inefficient ‘red tape’