International Economic Law and Public International Law: Strangers in the Night

This article argues that the current international legal order, which has emerged since the end of the Second World War, embraces a kind of schism between international economic law and public international law. It argues that this bifurcation of international law along the lines of the putative division between the political and the economic is rooted in the origins of the Westphalia System, which founds the modern international order. The article considers the effects of this bifurcation on the international law system.