International Trade Law Commons^™

Extending Trade Law Precedent, Jeffrey Kucik, Sergio Puig

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Precedent is celebrated as a fundamental feature of dense legal systems as it creates predictability, builds coherence, and enhances the authority of courts and tribunals. But, in international adjudication, precedent can also affect interstate cooperation and ultimately the legitimacy of international organizations. Wary of clashing with state interests, most international dispute settlement systems are designed so that rulings do not set obligatory precedent.

This Article describes the role of precedent in the Appellate Body (AB) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to explain how precedent can affect compliance with the decisions of international courts and tribunals (ICs). This Article makes …

Restoring Trade's Social Contract, Timothy Meyer, Frank J. Garcia

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

As we write, the United States, Canada, and Mexico are renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). These talks—and their possible failure—represent the biggest shift in U.S. economic policy in a generation. Since NAFTA came into force in 1994, it has transformed the North American economy. NAFTA has made possible continent-wide supply chains, in industries like the auto sector, that have reduced costs and allowed American automakers to remain competitive; it has opened markets for American agriculture; it has greatly increased the standard of living in Mexico; and it has reduced consumer prices across the continent. Despite these gains, …

The European Union's Common Foreign And Security Policy: It Is Not Far From Maastricht To Amsterdam, Daniel T. Murphy

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The radical shift in and expansion of the concepts of European law wrought by the now more than five-year-old Treaty on European Union (TEU) are not fully appreciated in the United States. Until the TEU of 1992, European law was bounded by the reasonably well-defined and understood contours of the Treaty of Rome and its amendments. The expressly political TEU added new dimensions to European law, the relationships among the Member States, and the scope of activities to be pursued by the European Union. This expansion was accomplished through, among other provisions, (1) the TEU's monetary union provisions; (2) its …