Law, Markets, and Democracy at the Organizations of American States

Abstract

Abstract The Organization of American States (OAS) represents an ambitious project of US hemispheric influence, a legalistic undertaking of regional republican governance, and an effort to expand liberalized market economies, that has proven remarkably resilient in shifting geo-political contexts. This chapter explores the changing form of the American regional project in international law. It argues that such a project, particularly under the OAS, has been characterized by an unstable process of coupling and decoupling of its republican and economic dimensions. Through this process, the OAS has become a remarkably innovative international organization that has secured, for better and for worse, US influence in the hemisphere.