Law Commons^™

Leopold & Morel: A Story Of ‘Free Trade’ And ‘Native Rights’ In The Congo Free State, Padideh Ala'i

Working Papers

This article explores the role of the doctrine of free trade in the creation of the Congo State in 1885 and the relationship between free trade and native rights with respect to the subsequent campaign to reform the colonial administration of the Congo State. On one hand, King Leopold II of Belgium successfully used the rhetoric of free trade and native rights to camouflage his personal ambitions in Africa. He set up international associations with the stated aim of "exploring and civilizing Africa" through "legitimate trade" and "suppression of the slave trade", Leopold convinced the major European powers and the …

The Expansion Of Intellectual Property Rights By International Agreement: A Case Study Comparing Chile And Australia’S Bilateral Fta Negotiations With The U.S., Ralph G. Fischer

ExpressO

This paper attempts to address the ongoing debate regarding the expansion of intellectual property rights (IPRs) through international negotiations. Commentators have described three theories that purport to explain the growing scope of IPRs in international law, as reflected in international agreements: that these agreements reflect coercion by economically powerful nations; that they are the products of lobbying by multinational corporations; and that they represent autonomous, welfare-enhancing instruments that benefit all parties. The article tests these theories by using a case study comparing free trade agreement negotiations that the United States recently concluded with a less developed country, Chile, and with …

Regional Economic Arrangements And The Rule Of Law In The Americas: The Human Rights Face Of Free Trade Agreements, Stephen J. Powell

UF Law Faculty Publications

We have addressed the widespread criticism that international trade rules are insensitive to basic human rights and that globalization has done little with its enormous power to preserve exhaustible natural resources and otherwise promote sustainable development, to alleviate the gap between rich and poor, to encourage states to grant their citizens basic human rights contained in the U.N. Covenant on Human Rights and other treaties, to resolve the often conflicting policies underlying essential human rights and trade goals, and, in general, to integrate trade and critical human rights law on the global front.

Our focus in this Essay is on …

The Promotion Of Free-Trade Areas Viewed In Terms Of Most-Favored-Nation Treatment And Imperial Preference, Sydney M. Cone Iii.

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Promotion Of Free-Trade Areas Viewed In Terms Of Most-Favored-Nation Treatment And "Imperial Preference", Sydney M. Cone Iii

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article will first examine the relevant WTO provisions that permit free-trade agreements as exceptions to MFN treatment. It will then situate current U.S. policy in the context of the history and purpose of those provisions. Next, the discussion of history and purpose will take up a key debate in the original GATT negotiations, in which the United States championed MFN treatment, while European countries, in particular, Great Britain, sought to retain preferential trading arrangements-arrangements once associated with the rubric of "imperial preference." Against this background, the article will explore the question of whether current U.S. policy represents a reversion …

Non-Violation Complaints: Wto Issues And Recent Free Trade Agreements, Locknie Hsu

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The proliferation of free trade agreements (FTAs) in the last decade has resulted in an accompanying increase in dispute settlement regimes pertaining to those agreements. One obvious consequence is that increasingly, states are exposing themselves to such complaints, and not necessarily with the limitations that have been imposed on the at General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)/World Trade Organization (WTO). The inherent ambiguity surrounding non-violation complaints at the WTO, and other risks relating to such complaints, are being multiplied manifold by these FTAs. The non-violation concept appears to have originated even before the GATT came into being. Developing-country FTA …