Mónica García-Salmones Rovira
Accounts of trade law usually are written in a technical style or focus on the WTO's legitimacy. Nevertheless, an increasing number of scholars are asking theoretical questions regarding why WTO law is structured as it is and operates the way it does. Some look to political or economic theory to answer the question. Lang, like some others, focuses more on social dynamics.
Lang's contribution is one of the most legally far-reaching, methodologically acute, and sociologically attentive accounts thus far. Lang's socio-political sensibility is distinguished because he employs an expansive category of social legal actors, thereby situating trade law within the politics of global struggles. His style is also unique because he parses how history informs the present. And most importantly, he studies how different legal theories are created from this context and how those theories affect the practice of trade law.