World Hunger, the Global Food System, and (International) Law

This chapter seeks to explain why it is that in spite of long-standing and concerted interventions to address world hunger the efforts of the international community have consistently fallen short. The chapter begins by locating the origins of the contemporary global food system in the period of European colonialism, and it then explores the place of law in creating conditions of food insecurity through the establishment of new market relations between colonial powers and colonized peoples. Particular attention is paid to the special role of public international law in enabling the perpetuation of colonial dynamics even after the period of decolonization through neocolonial practices of ‘economic development’. After examining the operations of regimes of international economic law and their interaction with private law norms, the chapter concludes that international law has been a key mechanism whereby the food security of populations of the Global South has been subordinated to the economic interests of wealthier market actors in the Global North.