Preventive Justice in the Governance of Global Markets: China, USA, UK
"Abstract - This essay analyzes the “criminal turn” in economic governance, where national security priorities embed preventive justice rationales into global market, trade, investment, and technology regulation. Drawing on the frameworks of preventive justice and securitization theory, it illustrates how systems in China, the United States, and the United Kingdom employ anticipatory coercion, strict liability sanctions, definitional vagueness, and procedural opacity, discarding traditional criminal safeguards such as mens rea and proportionality. Comparative evaluation exposes converging preventive architectures across divergent constitutional models, producing chilling effects, delegated enforcement, multilateral fragmentation, and threats to economic openness. It advocates limited consequentialist reforms to reconcile security imperatives with rule‑of‑law integrity."
Dennis J Baker, From Regulation to Crime Control: Preventive Justice in the Governance of Global Markets, Chinese Journal of International Law, Volume 25, Issue 1, March 2026, jmag009, https://doi.org/10.1093/chinesejil/jm...
Time Links
00:00:00 - Criminal Economic Governance
00:00:12 - Abstract
00:01:17 - I. Introduction: The criminal turn in economic governance
00:11:56 - II. Preventive justice and the security turn in economic governance
00:21:35 - III. Strategic competition and the securitization of the global economy
00:26:20 - IV. Criminalizing economic advantage
00:31:44 - V. Divergent paths in economic security governance
00:33:03 - V.A. China’s Law
00:36:32 - V.B. The United States’ Extraterritorial Security
00:38:55 - V.C. The United Kingdom’s Intermediate Position
00:41:03 - V.D. Indeterminacy and Delegated Authority
00:42:52 - V.E. Erosion of Justice
00:45:08 - V.F. Extraterritorial Reach
00:50:36 - V.G. Enforcement Intensity and the Criminalization of Market Activity
00:53:15 - V.H. Strategic Industrial Policy Integration
00:56:45 - VI. Chilling incentives and market-based enforcement
00:59:23 - VII. Reordering the norms of global economic intent
01:09:20 - VII.A. Fragmented Law and the Rise of Competitive Governance
01:12:12 - VII.B. Reconfiguring International Cooperation
01:18:38 - VIII. Conclusion
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comprehensive national security” (总体国家安全观), International Traffic in Arms Regulations, Export Control Act 2002 , Export Control Order 2008, China’s 2023 Counterespionage Law, International Emergency Economic, International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Extraterritorial Reach, Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures (TPIMs), Preventive State, Learning Resources, Inc v Trump, Foreign Direct Product Rule and Entity List, Financial Action Task Force, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT, Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts (ARSIWA), Sempra Energy International v Argentina (Award), criminalization of investment activity, Competitive Governance, OECD, commerce, trade, and investment, e Foreign Direct Product Rule, global prosperity and collective welfare, National Security and Investment Act 2021, Regulating preventive justice, National Security Legislation, Securitization as political theory, Globalization and peace, Doctrine for Economic Security, Digital Interdependence and Power Politics, US-Chinese Hegemony, UK Financial Sanctions Framework, Post-Brexit , Politicization, Preventive Orders and the Rule of Law, international law,