Beyond Tariffs and Subsidies: Toward a New Framework for U.S. Industrial Policy — A Law and Development Analysis

East Asian Legal Studies Talk:

Prof. Y.S. Lee
West Virginia University College of Law
Director, Law and Development Institute

The United States has returned to tariffs and subsidies with renewed force, seeking to rebuild domestic manufacturing, promote strategic industries, and counter geopolitical rivals such as China. This resurgence of industrial policy marks a sharp departure from the rule-based international trade order under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the World Trade Organization since 1947. Yet despite costly tariffs and hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies, the economic results remain uncertain, while concerns over inflation, trade conflict, and market distortion continue to grow. Current debates in economics, politics, and trade law have focused largely on whether tariffs and subsidies are desirable. Far less attention has been paid to a more fundamental question: whether the United States possesses the legal and institutional capacity to implement industrial policy effectively.

This Article addresses that question through the General Theory of Law and Development, a framework that examines how law, broader legal frameworks, and institutions shape economic and social transformation. It argues that contemporary U.S. industrial policy is structurally inadequate to achieve its stated objectives due to serious legal and institutional deficiencies undermining effective implementation, coordination, and policy coherence. These deficiencies also generate significant tensions with both domestic and international legal obligations, as illustrated by the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump. The Article develops foundational elements of a new legal and institutional framework for industrial promotion grounded in international collaboration, economic rationality, and institutional coordination.

Y.S. Lee is a lawyer, economist, and international relations scholar with internationally-recognized authority in law and development and international trade law. He is currently a full-time, tenure-track faculty member and the Arthur S. Dayton Faculty Fellow at the West Virginia University College of Law and serves as Director and Professorial Fellow of the Law and Development Institute. He earned his undergraduate degree in economics with academic distinction from the University of California, Berkeley, and received his law degrees (B.A., M.A., Ph.D.) from the University of Cambridge. Author of Reclaiming Development in the World Trading System (Cambridge University Press, 3d ed. forthcoming 2026), Safeguard Measures in World Trade: The Legal Analysis (Edward Elgar, 4th ed. 2025), and Law and Development: Theory and Practice (Routledge, 2d ed. 2022), Professor Lee has over one hundred thirty scholarly publications in the areas of international trade law and economic development, comparative law, and international commercial arbitration. His recent work has been focused on the impact that domestic and international legal systems, including the legal framework for international trade, has on economic development. He has also developed the concept of microtrade, a new system of international trade designed to alleviate populations of the least-developed countries of extreme poverty. He is currently an associate editor of the Journal of World Trade and the founding editor-in-chief of the Law and Development Review.

A light lunch will be provided. Please register here.

A Harvard ID is required in order to enter Harvard Law School buildings. If you have questions, please contact eals@law.harvard.edu in advance of the event.