For the best doctoral dissertation completed and accepted in 2003 or 2004 in the field of international relations, law, and politics.

Award Committee: Layna Mosley, University of North Carolina, chair; Pierre Martin, University of Montreal; and John O'Neal, University of Alabama.

Recipient: Emilie M. Hafner-Burton, Nuffield College, Oxford University

Dissertation: "Globalizing Human Rights? How International Trade Agreements Shape Government Repression"

Dissertation Chair: Michael Barnett, University of Minnesota

Citation : We have selected Emilie Hafner-Burton (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) as the winner of this year's Helen Dwight Reid Award. Her dissertation, "Globalizing Human Rights? How International Trade Agreements Shape Government Repression," investigates the extent to which and the mechanisms through which international trade agreements influence governments' observance of human rights. Drawing on liberal and sociological institutional theory, this project assesses a question of tremendous policy relevance: are free trade agreements and respect for human rights at odds with one another?

Hafner-Burton argues that this need not be the case: trade agreements can have positive consequences for human rights practices. The dissertation suggests two main causal pathways through which this can occur. First, trade promotes economic growth; growth and wealth, in turn, help to improve democratization and respect for human rights. Second, trade regimes embed governments in international organizations; leaders' choices and attitudes regarding repression change as they are socialized into these institutions.

These arguments differ from those often heard in policy debates. More importantly, they are supported by systematic empirical analyses, something often lacking in public discussions of globalization and human rights. Hafner-Burton uses both sophisticated quantitative analyses and well-chosen case studies (Mercosur, in Latin America; and COMESA, in sub-Saharan Africa). The combination of large-N and qualitative evidence allows Hafner-Burton to make convincing arguments about the linkages between regional trade agreements and domestic repression. Moreover, Hafner-Burton improves the state of knowledge in contemporary human rights research by extending and refining one of the primary quantitative measures of rights, the Political Terror Scale.

Ultimately, the dissertation concludes that there is wide variation in how states' international trade commitments influence domestic repression. The impact of trade agreements on human rights is contingent on governments' political and economic resources. Interestingly, it is in poor, autocratically-governed nations that trade agreements often are associated with improvements in human rights practices. Hafner-Burton's findings, then, underline the importance of domestic institutions to studies of international law and international political economy.

We commend the dissertation for addresses an important, contentious topic; for its thorough and sophisticated statistical analyses; and for its strategic use of case studies to trace causal processes.