1
The Politics of Forum-shopping in International Trade:
The Case of Japan
Saadia M. Pekkanen, Mireya Solis, Saori N. Katada
Why do states choose different forums to pursue similar types of economic diplomacy?
In theory and in practice we know little about why states choose among forums at all. Research
in the field of international political economy (IPE) has thus far concentrated on issues such as
the origins, design, and impact of international institutions.
1
But very few political scientists have
explicitly considered the issue of choice among the many international forums through which
states can pursue their economic diplomacy, similar to the ways that private parties choose
among different methods for commercial dispute resolution.
2
At the broadest level, the existing forums in the international system -- which range from
bilateral to regional and onto multilateral -- vary on a number of critical dimensions, such as the
number and type of participants, degree of legality, range of substantive scope, organizing
principles, and even extent of newness. From the United States to Latin America, from Europe to
Africa, and now even onto South and East Asia, states are choosing to pursue their economic
diplomacy through these diverse organizational forums. The question is why. Why do states
pursue the same economic diplomacy – trade liberalization and dispute resolution –
simultaneously across different forums? What factors motivate states to choose one forum over
another? This critical issue in the global political economy -- state choices among multiple
forums -- offers tremendous opportunity for analyses concerning why different forums exist, and
1
Krasner, ed. 1983; Goldstein, Kahler, Keohane, and Slaughter eds., 2000; Koremenos, Lipson, Snidal,
eds., 2001.
2
Martin 1992; Mattli 2001; Busch 2001; Mansfield and Reinhardt 2003; Davis 2003.
Convention