Dr. Claire Cutler

Office hours

Summer 2024 office hours: by appointment.

Interests

• international relations and legal theories
• international law and organization
• international political economy
• transnational law and dispute resolution

About Dr. Cutler

Claire Cutler is a professor of international relations and international law in the Political Science Department at UVic. She is a graduate of UBC (BA; PhD), the LSE (MSc) and McGill (LLB).

Dr. Cutler specializes in the intersections of international law, international politics and international political economy. She is interested in developing critical theory in international law. Her contemporary research focuses upon institutions and processes for dispute resolution in international and transnational law. In particular, she is examining the trend toward the privatization of global governance and its implications for the future of democratic institutions and processes.

She has been a recipient of numerous grants facilitating research projects, workshops and conferences from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law (The Hague), the ONATI Institute for the Sociology of Law (Spain), and the International Studies Association (ISA). She is a co-applicant on a 7-year partnership grant entitled The Hidden Costs of Global Supply Chains, awarded in 2018 by SSHRC, to fund an interdisciplinary examination of various dimensions of global commerce.

Her publications include The Politics of Private Transnational Governance by Contract, edited with Thomas Dietz (Routledge Series on the Politics of Transnational Law, 2017), New Constitutionalism and World Order, edited with Stephen Gill (Cambridge University Press 2014),  Private Power and Global Authority: Transnational Merchant Law in the Global Political Economy (Cambridge University Press, 2003), Private Authority and International Affairs, edited with Virginia Haufler and Tony Porter (New York: State University of New York Press, 1999), and International Economic Regimes and Canadian Foreign Policy edited with Mark W. Zacher, (UBC Press, 1992).

She was the recipient of the Weller Prize, an award that recognizes the best Political Science book by a BC author.

Teaching

Dr. Cutler teaches courses on international relations, international political economy and critical globalization studies.

Teaching 2024-25

Fall 2024

• No teaching

Spring 2025

• POLI 329: The Political Foundations of International Law
• POLI 540/640: International Relations Graduate Field Seminar

Previous courses taught:

• POLI 240: International Politics
• POLI 329: Political Foundation of International Law
• POLI 340: International Studies
• POLI 343: International Organization
• POLI 442: Political Foundation of International Law
• POLI 540/640: International Relations (grad seminar)

Research

Watch a video of Dr. Cutler's presentation in the Law and Marxism Series Session on Maia Pal’s, Jurisdictional Accumulation: An Early Modern History of Law, Empires and Capital  (Cambridge University Press, 2021) Queen Mary Law School, London, March 24, 2021.

Politics of supply chain research

Dr. Cutler received a research grant from the BC Ministry of Health to study the various obstacles that BC faced in procuring PPE (personal protective equipment) throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. She is also a co-applicant and researcher on a SSHRC partnership grant research on "Hidden Costs of Global Supply Chains" and has been featured in the media.

• CFAX radio (December 16, 2020)
• The documentary America’s Medical Supply Crisis examines the US supply chains for personal protective equipment in the COVID-19 pandemic. The documentary was produced by the UBC Global Reporting Centre in partnership with a number of other institutions under the auspices of the SSHRC Hidden Costs of Global Supply Chains Partnership and highlights the research findings. (October 8, 2020)

Dr. Cutler is a co-applicant on a multi-million dollar 7-year SSHRC Partnership Grant entitled “The Hidden Costs of Supply Chain Governance: A Global Investigation”. She is currently studying the political economy of medical supply chains and has 2 research projects in progress:

• The Legal and Political Vulnerability of PPE Supply Chains during the Covid-19 Pandemic: Policy Prescriptions for Enhanced Security
• Corruption, Greed and Corporate Social Responsibility in Global Medical Supply Chains: Global and National Challenges

Dr. Cutler was also awarded a grant to host a Workshop on “Transformations in the Global Polity through Public and  Private Law” by the ONATI International Institute for the Sociology of Law, ONATI, Spain, June 2020, which was re-scheduled due to the global pandemic.

Dr. Cutler is presently completing a manuscript entitled A Critique of Global Capitalism: The Climate under Fire under contract with Cambridge University Press.

Publications

Articles

• "Blind spots in IPE: contract law and the structural embedding of transnational capitalism,"; Review of International Political Economy. (2023).
• "Reclaiming Sovereignty: Resistance to Transnational Authority and the Investor-State Regime," In The Oxford Handbook of Transnational Law, edited by Peer Zumbansen (Oxford University Press 2021.), pp. 801-820.
• "Locating Private Transnational Authority in the Global Political Economy," in Peer Zumbansen, ed., The Many Lives of Transnational Law: Critical Engagements with Jessup's Bold Proposal, (Cambridge University Press 2020), pp. 321-347.
• "The hidden costs of law in the governance of global supply chains: The turn to arbitration," with David Lark, Review of International Political Economy, September 16, 2020 Link to article
• "Incorporating corporate social responsibility within investment treaty law and arbitral practice: Progress or fantasy remedy?" Investment Treaty News, December 20, 2020. Link to article.
• "Locating Private Transnational Authority in the Global Political Economy," in The Many Lives of Transnational Law: Critical Engagements with Jessup’s Bold Proposal, edited by Peer Zumbansen (Cambridge University Press, 2020), pp. 321- 347.
• "The Rule of Law, New Constitutionalism and Transnational Legality," in   Handbook on the Rule of Law, edited by Christopher May and Adam Winchester (Edward Elgar 2018).
• The Judicialization of Private Transnational Power and Authority,” Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 25 (1) (2018): 61- 95.
• “Transformations in Statehood, The Investor-State Regime, and the New Constitutionalism,” Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 23 (1) (2016): 95- 126.
• The Politics of Private Transnational Governance by Contract (Routledge 2017), edited with Thomas Dietz.
• “The politics of private transnational governance by contract: Introduction and analytical framework,” with Thomas Dietz in Cutler and Dietz (eds) The Politics of Private Transnational Governance by Contract (2017): 1- 36.
• “Private transnational governance in global value chains: Contract as a neglected dimension,” in Dietz in Cutler and Dietz (eds) The Politics of Private Transnational Governance by Contract (2017):79- 96.
• “Regulating private military security companies by contract: Between anarchy and hierarchy?” with Stephanie Law in with Thomas Dietz in Cutler and Dietz (eds) The Politics of Private Transnational Governance by Contract (2017): 255- 276.
• “Strange bedfellows? Bankers, business(men) and Bureaucrats in global financial governance,” in Susan Strange and the Future of the Global Political Economy: Power, control and transformation, edited by Randall Germaine (RIPE Series in Global Political Economy, Routledge 2016), pp. 126-151.
• New Constitutionalism and World Order (Cambridge University Press 2014), edited with Stephen Gill.
• “New constitutionalism and world order: general introduction,” with Stephen Gill in Stephen Gill and A. Claire Cutler (eds.) New Constitutionalism and World Order (Cambridge University Press 2014), pp. 1- 22.
• “New Constitutionalism and the commodity form of  global capitalism,” in Gill and Cutler (eds.) New Constitutionalism and World Order (Cambridge University Press 2014), pp. 45- 62.
• "International Commercial Arbitration, Transnational Governance, and the New Constitutionalism," in Walter Mattli and Thomas Dietz, International Arbitration and Global Governance: Contending Theories and Evidence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), pp.140-167.
• Co-edited with Stephen Gill, New Constitutionalism and World Order (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 2014).
• Co-authored with Stephen Gill, "New constitutionalism and world order: general introduction," in New Constitutionalism and World Order (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 2014), pp. 1-21.
• "New constitutionalism and the commodity form of global capitalism," in New Constitutionalism and World Order (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 2014), pp. 45-62.
• "Private transnational governance and the crisis of global leadership," in Stephen Gill (ed.) Global Crises and the Crisis of Global Leadership (Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 56-70.
• “The Privatization of Authority in the Global Political Economy" in Gary Teeple and Stephen McBride (eds.), Relations of Global Power: Neolibeal Order and Disorder (University of Toronto Press, 2011), pp. 41- 59.
• "The Globalization of International Law, Indigenous Identity, and the New Constitutionalism," in William Coleman (ed.) Property, Territory, Globalization: Struggles over Autonomy (Vancouver and Toronto: University of British Columbia Press, 2011), pp. 29-55.
• "Unthinking the GATS: a radical political economy critique of private transnational governance," in M. Ougaard and A. Leander (eds.) Business and Global Governance (Routledge/Warwick Studies in Globalisation, 2010), pp. 74- 95.
• "Problematizing Corporate Social Responsibility Under Conditions of Late Capitalism and Postmodernity," in Authority in the Global Political Economy, edited by M. Nettesheim and Volker Rittberger, Palgrave Macmillan 2008, 189- 216.
• "Transnational Law and Privatized Governance," in Institutions, Governance and Private Ordering, edited by Louis Pauly and William Coleman, UBC Press, 2008, 144- 165.
• "Locating Authority in the Global Political Economy," International Studies Quarterly 1999 reprinted in Global Governance, edited by Lisa Martin in The Library of Essays in International Relations, Ashgate, 2008.
• "Toward a radical political economy critique of transnational economic law," International Law on the Left: Revisiting Marxist Legacies, edited by Susan Marks, Cambridge University press, 2008, 199- 219.
• "Locating Authority in the Global Political Economy," International Studies Quarterly reprinted in Critical Theory in International Relations: A Reader edited by S. Roach, Routledge, 2007.
• "Transnational Business Civilization, Corporations, and the Privatization of Global Governance", in International Political Economy Yearbook: Global Corporate Power, Volume 15 edited by Christopher May, Boulder, Co: Lynne Rienner Press 2006, pp. 199-226.
• "Gramsci, the Law, and the Culture of Global Capitalism", in Images of Gramsci: Connections and Contentions in Political Theory and International Relations, edited by Andreas bieler and David Morton, London and New York: Routledge, 2006, pp. 133-147.
• "Critical Globalization Studies and International law under Conditions of Postmodernity and Late Capitalism", in William Robinson and Richard Applebaum (eds.) Critical Globalization Studies, New York: Routledge, 2005, pp. 197-205.
• Private Power and Global Authority: Transnational Merchant Law in the Global Political Economy (Cambridge University Press, 2003).
• "L'Enterprise Productrice De Droit: Le Role De L'Avocat", in ConfZrence de Paris Du Droit de L'Economie, Syntheses, Cycle du Bicentenaire 20-21 novembre 2003 (Ordre Des Avocats ç La Cour De Paris, 2003), 19-24.
• "Critical historical materialism and international law: imagining international law as praxis", in Stephen Hobden and John Hobson (eds.) Historical Sociology of International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 181-199.
• "Law in the Global Polity", in Morten Ougaard and Richard Higgott (eds.) Towards a Global Polity (London and New York: Routledge, 2002), pp. 58-77.
• "The Privatization of Global Governance and the Modern Law Merchant," in Adrienne HZritier (ed.) Common Goods: Reinventing European and International Governance (Lanham, Boulder, New York, Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc., 2002), pp. 127-158.
• "Historical materialism, globalisation, and law: Competing conceptions of property," in Mark Rupert and Hazel Smith (eds.) Historical Materialism and Globalization (London and New York: Routledge, 2002), pp. 230-256.
• "Private international regimes and interfirm cooperation," in Rodney Bruce Hall and Thomas J. Biersteker (eds.) The Emergence of Private Authority in Global Governance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 23-42.
• "Global Capitalism and Liberal Myths: Dispute Settlement in Private International Trade Relations," reprinted in The New Political Economy of Globalisation, edited by R. Higgott and A. Payne (Cheltenham, Glos: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2000).
• "Globalization, Law, and Transnational Corporations: A Deepening of Market Discipline," in T. Cohn, S. McBride, and D, Wiseman (eds.) Power in the Global Era: Grounding Globalization (Houndmills, Basingstoke and London: MacMillan Press and New York: St MartinÕs Press, 2000), pp. 53-66.
• "Theorizing the 'No-Man's-Land' Between Politics and Economics", in T. Lawton, J. Rosenau, and A. Verdun (eds.) Strange Power: Shaping the parameters of international relations and international political economy (Aldershot, U.K and Burlington U.S.A: Ashgate, 2000), pp. 159-74. Jointly edited with Virginia Haufler and Tony Porter, Private Authority and International Affairs (New York: SUNY Press, 1999).
• Private Authority in International Trade Relations: The Case of Maritime Transport, in Cutler, Haufler, and Porter (eds.) Private Authority and International Affairs, 1999.
• With Virginia Haufler and Tony Porter, "Introduction: Private Authority and International Affairs," in Cutler, Haufler, and Porter (eds.) Private Authority and International Affairs.
• Co-edited with Mark W. Zacher, Canadian Foreign Policy and International Economic Regimes, Vancouver: U.B.C. Press, 1992.
• "Canada and the Private International Trade Law Regime," in Cutler and Zacher, eds., Canadian Foreign Policy and International Economic Regimes.
• Joint-author, The Constitution: Getting Our Act Together, McGill Legal Information and Research Group, 1982.

Reviews & reports

• Report prepared for the BC Ministry of Health entitled Exploring the Economic, Political, Legal, Institutional and Social Vulnerabilities of BC’s PPE Supply Chain During the Covid Pandemic: Policy Prescriptions for Enhanced Security, 2022.
• Book review of John Britton, ed., Canada and the Global Economy, McGill-Queen=s University Press, 1996, in International Journal, Spring 1997.
• Book review of Kim R. Nossal, Rain Dancing: Sanctions in Canadian and Australian Foreign Policy, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994, in The International History Review, Vol. XVIII, No.1 (February 1996), pp. 230-2.
• Book review of Keith Krause and W. Andy Knight, eds., State, Society, and the UN System, New York: United Nations University Press, 1995, in International Journal, Vol. L, No.4 (Autumn 1995), pp. 814-16.
• Book review of Cranford Pratt, ed., Canadian International Development Assistance Policies, Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen=s University Press, 1994, in Canadian Public Policy, Vol. XXI, No.3 (1995).
• Book review of B.W. Muirhead, The Development of Post War Canadian Trade Policy, Montreal: McGill-Queen=s University Press, 1992, in International Journal, Vol. XLIX, No.1, (Winter 1993-94), pp. 160-1.
• Book review of Paul Taylor and A.J.R. Groom, eds., International Institutions at Work, London: Pinter Publishers, 1988 in International Journal, Vol. XLIV, No.3 (Summer 1989), pp. 728-30.