Lex Mercatoria, human rights and democracy

The concept of Lex Mercatoria has begun to take firm hold in contemporary analyses of the Latin American and Caribbean legal, political, and economic context. The return of International Financial Institutions, as well as the proliferation of trade and investment treaties in the region,

It is linked to the strong neoliberal shift in public policies, fundamentally - but not only - in those with social and environmental content, as well as a generalized decline in the levels of protection and guarantee of human rights and nature, with significant repercussions on gender inequalities.

Against this backdrop, the working group aims to analyze the impact of Lex Mercatoria on human rights and democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean. The group will study the intervention of international financial institutions, particularly the IMF, as well as existing trade and investment treaties in the region, analyzing their impact on public policy models and guarantees of rights, and on models of representative democracy within the framework of legal production in the region. Furthermore, it will analyze human rights and environmental violations by transnational economic actors and their connections to Lex Mercatoria, as well as the geopolitical implications of the behavior of transnational corporations. Across all these areas, the group will investigate the specific impacts of the aforementioned factors on structures of gender inequality.

Against the backdrop of the seemingly inexorable development of the Lex Mercatoria, the group will propose alternatives and processes of resistance, working in permanent cooperation with regional and international social organizations and movements, monitoring and supporting processes of struggles and demands in the field of human rights.

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