Objectives


Capitalism has always been an economic system with a world-wide ambition. International trade and internationalization of investment have been two of its essential elements. Nevertheless, during the last years, the importance of the international aspects of the economy has grown enormously. Two of the main reasons that have lead to this economic globalisation are the explosive growth of financial and monetary movements as well as the increased flows of foreign direct investment. International transactions have increased accordingly.

At the same time, new tools to regulate the international economic relations have been created: multilateral (the creation of the World Trade Organization, the implementation of its new agreements on services and intellectual property; the negotiations of a multilateral agreement on foreign investment) and bilateral (NAFTA, Mercosur, the European Community and its Member States' bilateral agreements with third countries).

Economic and social agents play the main role in globalisation but they do not control its development and they often discover too late how they get affected by it. Political agents, on the other hand, seem frequently overcome by the events without knowing how to react.

The Observatory of Globalisation of the University of Barcelona (U.B.), integrated in the Scientific Park of Barcelona, intends to provide an articulated and coherent overview of the international instruments that create the framework of the globalisation process, covering all the aspects of this process (commercial, financial and monetary fields) and focusing on the relation between the more specifically economic aspects and the social and political ones (effects on the different sectorial policies). This overview will therefore be inter-disciplinary and will integrate the political, economic and legal approaches.

The Observatory of Globalisation of the University of Barcelona is the first University center in Spain that can offer an encompassing view of the legal and institutional framework of the globalisation process.

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