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Abstract: The term "international economic law" is coming into wider use. This essay suggests that the rise of "international economic law" is less a result of external changes in rules and institutions than of internal changes in perception, especially about scholarship. The growing use of "international economic law" reflects a new set of intellectual boundaries among interested scholars. One of these boundary shifts is a new line of demarcation that sets off international economic law from the larger discipline of international law, reflecting the sheer importance of the subject. The other boundary changes, however, eliminate barriers between areas of scholarship previously considered separate. International economic law brings together the rules and institutions (predominantly national, or even private) that directly affect international business transactions with those (predominantly international or transnational) that shape the economic relationships among nations and other public actors. This essay considers why "international economic law" is winning acceptance, and what its adoption implies for scholarship.
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