Double Standards in International Law: The Case of Compensation

iCourts lunch seminar with Professor Lauge Poulsen.

Internal government records from the Cold War show that one of the architects of the international law on property protection, the United Kingdom, knowingly pursued double standards of compensation. While demanding developing countries follow the international standard on compensation for expropriation, shifting British governments were unwilling to adhere to the same standard in the UK. The archival findings contribute to the growing attention to double standards in international law and are notable in light of normative debates about distributive justice embedded in international law on property protection.

Bio

Professor Lauge Poulsen is Head of the School of Public Policy at University College London. He has published widely on the politics and history of international economic law. Poulsen was Chair of OECD’s inter-governmental work programme on climate change and investment law from 2021 to 2025. He was appointed OBE (Officer of the British Empire) for services to UK trade policy in 2022.