Th e multiplicity of commitments resulting from the World Trade
Organization (WTO), free trade agreements (FTAs), bilateral investment
treaties and other agreements has increasingly complicated the nature
of national obligations. Th e World Bank and IMF further impinge on
national autonomy by imposing a variety of conditions on loans and other
forms of funding. All of these treaty obligations impact on governments’
ability to exercise complete autonomy in the establishing and administering
of national policy objectives. In particular, the rules and decisions
arising from these international agreements and fi nancial institutions
result in limitations on countries’ ability to make a wide range of regulatory
decisions, including those relating to health, environment, immigration
and other issues of national importance. Until relatively recently,
these types of regulatory matters were regarded as policies almost exclusively
to be determined by sovereign nations. At the same time that international
agreements pose constraints on national regulatory autonomy,
there remains considerable national autonomy in relation to how to comply
with the variety of obligations the agreements impose. Th is tension
between international cooperation and autonomy to act in the national
interest is the core theme running through this collection.