Prof. Dr. Thomas Dietz

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND INTERNATIONAL LAW WITH A FOCUS ON SUSTAINABILITY GOVERNANCE
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND INTERNATIONAL LAW WITH A FOCUS ON SUSTAINABILITY GOVERNANCE
Institute for Political Science
Room 303
Scharnhorststraße 100
D-48151 Münster
Tel: +49 251 83-24910
Fax: +49 251 83-25136
thomas.dietz@uni-muenster.de
Office hours: by appointment

Thomas is Professor for International Relations and Law. Before coming to Muenster he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Institute of European and Comparative Law at the University of Oxford and a member of Wolfson College. Thomas holds an MA in political science from the University of Bonn and a PhD in law from the University of Bremen, where he also worked as a research fellow at the Collaborative Research Center 597 “Transformations of the State”. His research is focused on the areas of International Politics, International Law and Sustainable Development.

  • New Publications

    Thomas Dietz (in production) The rule of law effects of commercial arbitration in a socio-legal per-spective , in: T. Schulz/F. Ortino (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of International Arbitration

    Thomas Dietz , Marius Dotzauer, Edward S. Cohen (2019) The legitimacy crisis of investor-state arbitration and the new EU investment court system, Review of International Political Economy, first published online: 02 Jul 2019, https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2019.1620308

    Thomas Dietz , Janina Grabs, Andrea Estrella Chong (2019) Mainstreamed voluntary sustainability standards and their effectiveness: Evidence from the Honduran coffee sector, in: Regulation and Governance, first published online: 28 February 2019, https://doi.org/10.1111/rego.12239

    Thomas Dietz , Andrea Estrella Chong, Janina Grabs, Bernard Kilian (2019) How Effective is Multiple Certification in Improving the Economic Conditions of Smallholder Farmers? Evidence from an Impact Evaluation in Colombia’s Coffee Belt, The Journal of Development Studies, first published online: 09 July 2019, https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2019.1632433

    Thomas Dietz , Jennie Auffenberg, Janina Grabs, Andrea Estrella Chong, Bernard Kilian (2018) The Voluntary Coffee Standard Index (VOCSI). Developing a composite index to assess and compare the strength of Mainstream Voluntary Sustainability Standards in the global coffee industry, in: Ecological Economics (150), 72-87, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2018.03.026

    Thomas Dietz , Jan Börner, Jan Janosh Förster, Joachim von Braun (2018) Governance of the bioeconomy: A global comparative study of national bioeconomy strategies, in: Sustainability 10/9, 3190. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10093190

  • Research

    Logotranssneu-08

    The research group TRANSSUSTAIN is funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) have evolved into key transnational governance instruments to bind international markets to fundamental principles of sustainable development. As they continue to extend their influence in international markets, it is of increasing academic and public interest to study the effectiveness of VSS. TRANSSUSTAIN focuses on the effectiveness of VSS in global coffee value chains. The main research question is to what extent VSS are capable of turning global coffee production into a more sustainable industry. The group combines comparative institutional analyses of different VSS with on-the-ground impact studies in different Latin American countries. The group is based at the University of Muenster and INCAE Business School in Costa Rica.

    For further information see: https://www.uni-muenster.de/Transsustain/

    © STRIVE

    STRIVE is a research project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. It aims at improving the knowledge base for the design of sustainable bioeconomy policies and regulatory frameworks at national and international level. The project focuses on the sustainability implications of transnational biomass trade, technological innovation, and innovation transfer in selected bioeconomy sectors with an emphasis on major biomass and knowledge producing countries and regions. Impacts of bio-based transformations will be evaluated against relevant sustainability dimensions, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) on poverty eradication (1), food security (2), reduced inequality (10), responsible consumption (12), climate action (13), and terrestrial ecosystems (15). We have adopted an interdisciplinary research approach integrating economics with natural and political science and rely on methods such as, economic modelling, statistical and econometric analysis, life-cycle assessment, technology & innovation management, and qualitative as well as quantitative case studies.

    For further information see: https://strive-bioecon.de

    Research Project: International investor-state arbitration and public policy

    This research project is self-funded. Today, investor-state dispute resolution before private arbitration tribunals is negotiated and expanded in a series of bi- and multilateral free-trade agreements such as TTIP, TPP, and CETA. Thus not only emerging and developing countries but also highly developed countries are increasingly subject to an extra-legal system evolving beyond the nation state. This development is widely associated with an over-empowerment of international investors as well as undemocratic reductions of sovereign national policy spaces. However, until now these claims have not been subjected to comprehensive empirical research. Through a series of comparative studies this project aims to better understand how the rise of international investment law and investor-state arbitration affects politics and law-making de facto in highly developed countries.

    For further information see: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09692290.2019.1620308

  • Research Team

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    Andrea Estrella is a PhD candidate at the University of Münster. Before joining TRANS SUSTAIN, she worked as Environment and Energy Technical Assistant at United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Peru. Her research focuses on the environmental and socio-economic effectiveness of market-based sustainability and conservation initiatives.
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    Karla Rubio is a PhD candidate at the University of Münster. She has a broad experience working with development organizations in El Salvador, mostly in the monitoring and evaluation of social programmes and projects. She is interested in studying the determinants of the effectiveness of sustainability certificates at the producer level, especially for small producers.
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    Paulo Mortara Batistic is a PhD candidate at the University of Münster.
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    Marius Dotzauer is an academic assistant at the Institute for Political Science.
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    Elisa Benker is a Masters student of European Affairs at Sciences Po Paris and Freie Universität Berlin. She is a Research Assistant for TRANS SUSTAIN and has written her Bachelor thesis on Direct Trade coffee schemes.
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    Laura Deal is a Masters student of National and Transnational Studies at the University of Münster. In TRANS SUSTAIN she is a Research Assistant currently working on developing policy briefs for VSS stakeholders.
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    Marilyn Brämer is the secretary of Prof. Dr. Dietz. She is currently on maternal leave and will be represented in the meantime by Jutta Siepert.
    Phone: +49 251 83-25320
    E-Mail: jutta.siepert@uni-muenster.de.

  • Publications

    Books

    • Thomas Dietz (2017) The Politics of Transnational Governance by Contract , Routledge (mit Claire Cutler, eds.)
    • Thomas Dietz (2014) Global Order Beyond Law, Hart Publishing Oxford.
    • Thomas Dietz (2014) International Arbitration and Global Governance: Contending Theories and Evidence , Oxford University Press (mit Walter Mattli, eds.).
    • Thomas Dietz (2010) Institutionen und Globalisierung: Eine empirische Untersuchung grenzüberschreitender Softwareentwicklungsverträge , Mohr Siebeck.

    Articles

    *with external peer-review, **double blind peer review

    • Thomas Dietz (forthcoming) The rule of law effects of commercial arbitration in a socio-legal per-spective , in: T. Schulz/F. Ortino (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of International Arbitration*
    • Thomas Dietz , Marius Dotzauer, Edward S. Cohen (2019) The legitimacy crisis of investor-state arbitration and the new EU investment court system, Review of International Political Economy,
    • first published online: 02 Jul 2019, https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2019.1620308 **
    • Thomas Dietz , Janina Grabs, Andrea Estrella Chong (2019) Mainstreamed voluntary sustainability standards and their effectiveness: Evidence from the Honduran coffee sector, in: Regulation and Governance, first published online: 28 February 2019, https://doi.org/10.1111/rego.12239 **
    • Thomas Dietz , Andrea Estrella Chong, Janina Grabs, Bernard Kilian (2019) How Effective is Multiple Certification in Improving the Economic Conditions of Smallholder Farmers? Evidence from an Impact Evaluation in Colombia’s Coffee Belt, The Journal of Development Studies, first published online: 09 July 2019, https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2019.1632433 **
    • Thomas Dietz , Jennie Auffenberg, Janina Grabs, Andrea Estrella Chong, Bernard Kilian (2018) The Voluntary Coffee Standard Index (VOCSI). Developing a composite index to assess and compare the strength of Mainstream Voluntary Sustainability Standards in the global coffee industry, in: Ecological Economics (150), 72-87, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2018.03.026 **
    • Thomas Dietz , Jan Börner, Jan Janosh Förster, Joachim von Braun (2018) Governance of the bioeconomy: A global comparative study of national bioeconomy strategies, in: Sustainability 10/9, 3190. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10093190 **
    • Thomas Dietz , Andrea Estrella Chong, Paulino Font Gilabert, Janina Grabs (2017) Women’s empowerment in rural Honduran coffee communities and its determinants, Development in Practice, 1/28, 33-50, https://doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2018.1402862 **
    • Claire Cutler, Thomas Dietz (2017) The Politics of Transnational Governance by Contract, Towards an Analytical and Theoretical Framework , in: C. Cutler/ T. Dietz (eds.) The Politics of Transnational Governance by Contract, Routledge*
    • Thomas Dietz (2017) Relational Contracts 2.0. The Changing Nature of Business Relations in the Digital Age , in: C. Cutler/ T. Dietz (eds.) The Politics of Transnational Governance by Contract, Routledge.*
    • Janina Grabs, Bernard Kilian, Daniel Calderón Hernández, and Thomas Dietz (2016): Understanding Coffee Certification Dynamics: A Spatial Analysis of Voluntary Sustainability Standard Proliferation, in: International Food and Agribusiness Management Review , Volume 19 Issue 3, 2016, https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.244667 **
    • Walter Mattli, Thomas Dietz (2014) Mapping and Assessing the Rise of International Commercial
    • Arbitration in the Globalization Era: An Introduction , in: W. Mattli / T. Dietz (eds.) International Arbitration and Global Governance: Contending Theories and Evidence, Oxford University Press*
    • Thomas Dietz (2014) Does International Commercial Arbitration Provide Efficient
    • Enforcement Mechanisms for International Trade? , in: W. Mattli / T. Dietz (eds.) International Arbitration and Global Governance: Contending Theories and Evidence, Oxford University Press.*