Durham & Thunmann
Diamond open access No APC ISSN 2977-0025
Journal of Global Trade, Ethics and Law
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Cover of Journal of Global Trade, Ethics and Law, volume 4, issue 1
Current issue

The Ethics of Interdependence: Trade, Responsibility and the Limits of Economic Power

This issue examines a recurring paradox of commercial order: the pursuit of autonomy within systems sustained by interdependence, incomplete knowledge and reciprocal restraint. From tariffs and human-rights due diligence to Confucian economic culture and U.S.–China rivalry, five studies trace the limits of economic power and the responsibilities that make exchange possible.

Published
03 September 2026
Articles
3
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Open access
Table of contents

Research articles

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  1. 01

    Research Article · Pages 1-13

    Economics Against the Human Order

    Yeomin Yoon

    Due to their misunderstanding of the nature of economics, mainstream American economists have become unwitting agents of destruction not only to the US but also to human civilization, largely because of American power and influence. The country often dubbed as “the only superpower” is richer than it has ever been. Its aggregate economy does not suffer from a lack of resources. For many years, mainstream American economists have neglected, and still appear to neglect, ecological and social interdependence by treating all goods equally, without considering the various ways in which the production of such goods depends on the rest of the world. By doing so, American economists have reduced all values to that of private profit-making. Many American economists have employed efficiency, productivity, and profit without a social and ecological context. As a result, they inadvertently look as if they have become antisocial and anti-ecological. This paper contends that such perverted and even contemptible aspects of mainstream American economists provide the counterparts in other countries with a valuable lesson to "learn reversely (or oppositely)" from the superpower. Additionally, it behooves all thinking persons, regardless of nationalities or ethnicities, to ask whether technology is acting like a foreign body in our socio-economic organism. Lastly, not least, what are the criteria for acceptable and unacceptable economic and technological growth toward what kind of goals?

  2. 02

    Research Article · Pages 14-28

    Ethical due Diligence across Borders: Why Contract Clauses are not Enough

    Nicolas Groffman

    This article examines the extent to which contractual mechanisms with overseas distributors, commercial agents and other intermediaries can discharge, or credibly support, human-rights and environmental due-diligence duties in global value chains. Using a doctrinal and normative analysis that brings agency and distribution law into conversation with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and Directive (EU) 2024/1760, it distinguishes the forms of leverage available across subsidiaries, suppliers, distributors, agents and other intermediaries. The article argues that contractual clauses remain indispensable for defining standards, generating information, creating procedural leverage, shaping incentives and structuring remediation, but that their capacity to shift legal responsibility is structurally limited by information asymmetry, enforceability constraints and mandatory law. It therefore rejects a model of ethics clauses as standalone devices for downstream risk transfer. Instead, it proposes an integrated model in which risk-based partner selection, calibrated contractual controls, continuous monitoring, corrective action and responsible exit operate as a continuous governance cycle. The main conclusion is that contract can operationalise due diligence, but cannot substitute for it.

  3. 03

    Research Article · Pages 29-49

    Culture and China’s Economic Development

    Len-Kuo Hu

    This study examines the economic implications of long-standing Confucian values and the principles of socialism with Chinese characteristics for China's economic development, particularly in the context of growing tensions between the United States and China. By incorporating an individual's propensity for cooperation and its influence on subjective value formation, together with an internal welfare adjustment mechanism inspired by prospect theory, the proposed model provides a framework for explaining the cyclical dynamics of cooperative behaviors. This analysis suggests that trade alone is not sufficient to bridge cultural differences between nations. Greater mutual understanding and appreciation of diverse cultural traditions may instead be fostered through educational and cultural exchanges, including international tourism. The study also advocates a prudent industrial policy that balances economic development with social welfare, thereby helping to ensure that the benefits of economic growth ultimately contribute to the well-being of the broader population.