Law Commons^™

Reforming World Bank Dispute Resolution: Icsid In Context, Susan Franck

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During a tumultuous moment in history with shifts in power and politics, international dispute settlement stands at a crossroads. In theory, international dispute settlement should not institutionalize abuses of power, rely upon a monolithic one-size-fits-all model, or be a waste of resources, which will inevitably generate stakeholder dissatisfaction. Rather, dispute resolution should reflect both a commitment to the rule of law and equal treatment that sustains nuanced, fair, and just procedures most likely to provide results of substantive quality. Against this backdrop and with the major reforms concluded in July 2022, this article explores the reality of dispute resolution at …

The Values-Based Trade Agenda, Fernanda Giorgia Nicola Dr., Michelle Egan

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With the increasing trade tensions between the United States and China, pressures created by Brexit, and the COVID-19 pandemic, most trade scholars have focused on rising protectionism exhibited through defensive strategies such as tariffs and export controls. However, this focus ignores the fundamental shift in international trade goals of the United States and the European Union towards a values-based trade agenda.

Instead of merely focusing on free trade based on efficiency and market access, trade regulators on both sides of the Atlantic have independently pursued measures designed to address environmental sustainability and social equity. These policies resonate with their domestic …

Securing Patent Law, Charles Duan

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A vigorous conversation about intellectual property rights and national security has largely focused on the defense role of those rights, as tools for responding to acts of foreign infringement. But intellectual property, and patents in particular, also play an arguably more important offense role. Foreign competitor nations can obtain and assert U.S. patents against U.S. firms and creators. Use of patents as an offense strategy can be strategically coordinated to stymie domestic innovation and technological progress. This Essay considers current and possible future practices of patent exploitation in this offense setting, with a particular focus on China given the nature …

The Vital Role Of The Wto Appellate Body In The Promotion Of Rule Of Law And International Cooperation: A Case Study, Padideh Ala'i

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No abstract provided.

The New Social Contracts In International Supply Chains, David Snyder

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This Article considers, from legal, practical, moral, and policy perspectives, Model Contract Clauses (MCCs) to protect the human rights of workers in international supply chains. The product of the ABA Business Law Section Working Group to Draft Human Rights Protections in International Supply Contracts, the MCCs are an effort to provide companies with carefully researched and well-drafted clauses to incorporate human rights policies into supply contracts (purchase orders, master vendor agreements, and the like). The Article discusses the impetus, goals, and strategies of the MCCs and explains the paradigm of the corporate, operational, and political landscape for which they are …

Fail To Comment At Your Own Risk: Does Issue Exhaustion Have A Place In Judicial Review Of Rules?, Jeffrey Lubbers

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The classic version of the exhaustion-of-remedies requirement generally requires a party to go through all the stages of an administrative adjudication before going to court. However, the doctrine has developed a new permutation, covering situations where a petitioner for judicial review did follow all the steps of the administrative appeals process, but had failed to raise in that process the issues now sought to be litigated in court. In those cases, which have been called “issue exhaustion” cases, the thwarted petitioner will likely be out of luck since normally there is no further opportunity to raise the issue at the …

Justifying India's Patent Position To The United States International Trade Commission And Office Of The United States Trade Representative, Sean Flynn, Srividhya Ragavan, Brook Baker

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No abstract provided.

Human Rights Protections In International Supply Chains—Protecting Workers And Managing Company Risk: 2018 Report And Model Contract Clauses From The Working Group To Draft Human Rights Protections In International Supply Contracts, Aba Section Of Business Law, David Snyder

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This report and the model contract clauses that it contains are an effort to help companies provide legally effective and operationally likely human rights protections for workers in international supply chains. The report is the product of the Working Group to Draft Human Rights Protections in International Supply Contracts, which is a unit of the American Bar Association Business Law Section. After identifying the problems, such as human trafficking and factory collapses as well as developing compliance obligations under federal, state, and foreign law, the report explains the difficulty of drafting legally effective clauses. Most of the issues result from …

Inside The Arbitrator's Mind, Susan Franck

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Arbitrators are lead actors in global dispute resolution. They are to global dispute resolution what judges are to domestic dispute resolution. Despite its global significance, arbitral decision making is a black box. This Article is the first to use original experimental research to explore how international arbitrators decide cases. We find that arbitrators often make intuitive and impressionistic decisions, rather than fully deliberative decisions. We also find evidence that casts doubt on the conventional wisdom that arbitrators render “split the baby” decisions. Although direct comparisons are difficult, we find that arbitrators generally perform at least as well as, but never …

Issues Concerning Enforcement And Dispute Resolution, Sean Flynn

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No abstract provided.

The External Dimension Of Eu Investment Law, Fernanda Nicola

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EU trade and investment policy is in flux. The rate at which the global trade and investment architecture is evolving through the mega-regional Free Trade Agreements ("FTAs") is unprecedented. In this context, we explain how European lawyers and trade negotiators are addressing the newly acquired investment competence, while at the same time reforming investment arbitration and proposing new systems of dispute resolution at the international level. EU trade negotiators have put forward transformative proposals for investment chapters in their FTAs to safeguard, above all, the autonomy of the EU legal order in its relationship with international arbitration law. By mapping …

The External Dimension Of Eu Investment Law, Fernanda Nicola

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

EU trade and investment policy is in flux. The rate at which the global trade and investment architecture is evolving through the mega-regional Free Trade Agreements ("FTAs") is unprecedented. In this context, we explain how European lawyers and trade negotiators are addressing the newly acquired investment competence, while at the same time reforming investment arbitration and proposing new systems of dispute resolution at the international level. EU trade negotiators have put forward transformative proposals for investment chapters in their FTAs to safeguard, above all, the autonomy of the EU legal order in its relationship with international arbitration law. By mapping …

Predicting Outcomes In Investment Treaty Arbitration, Susan Franck

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Crafting appropriate dispute settlement processes is challenging for any conflict-management system, particularly for politically sensitive international economic law disputes. As the United States negotiates investment treaties with Asian and European countries, the terms of dispute settlement have become contentious. There is a vigorous debate about whether investment treaty arbitration (ITA) is an appropriate dispute settlement mechanism. While some sing the praises of ITA, others offer a spirited critique. Some critics claim that ITA is biased against states, while others suggest ITA is predictable but unfair due to factors like arbitrator identity or venue. Using data from 159 final cases derived …

The Many Faces Of Transparency, Padideh Ala'i

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Transcript from the Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of American Society of International Law panel on the "Role of Transparency at the World Trade Organization."

The Politicization Of Legal Expertise In The Ttip Negotiation, Fernanda Nicola

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No abstract provided.

The Diversity Challenge: Exploring The 'Invisible College' Of International Arbitration, Susan Franck

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As diversity can affect the perceived legitimacy of a state’s dispute resolution system and the quality of judicial decisions, diversity levels in the national bench and bar have been an area of transnational concern. By contrast, little is known about diversity of adjudicators and counsel in international arbitration. With a lack of accurate, complete, and publicly available data about international arbitrators and practitioners, speculation about membership in the “invisible college” of international arbitration abounds. Using data from a survey of attendees at the prestigious and elite biennial Congress of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration permitted one glimpse into the …

Using Investor-State Mediation Rules To Promote Conflict Management, Susan Franck

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International investment treaties offer critical infrastructure for globalization and are one of the backbones of larger dialogues related to the international political economy. As the treaties grant substantive and procedural rights, the capacity of international investors to directly access dispute resolution involving States has been a story of both success and discontent. Investment treaty arbitration, in particular, has been a source of polarization; and stakeholders are actively seeking alternatives to formalized adjudication before ad hoc tribunals. Mediation, in addition to other forms of alternative dispute resolution and conflict management, has become an increasingly vital part of the debate about the …

Civil Consequences Of Corruption In International Commercial Contracts, Padideh Ala'i

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The United States legal system seeks to prevent and prohibit bribery and corruption through a myriad of laws, regulations and policies. Anti-corruption jurisprudence is more developed in the context of public sector contracts where the United States criminalizes bribery of public officials through 18 U.S.C. §201 (Bribery of Public Officials and Witnesses). In addition, the United States was the first country to criminalize bribery of foreign government officials in 1977 with the passage of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The FCPA has since been amended to comply with the adoption of the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign …

Critical Legal Histories In Eu Law, Fernanda Nicola

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INTRODUCTION: A workshop aiming to narrate the history of EU Law took place in November 2012 at a critical time for the very existence of the Union and its role as a global actor.' On the one hand, the current financial crisis is weakening some of the foundations and values that, in the last sixty years, EU lawyers, judges, and scholars have relied on. On the other hand, the U.S. government is pursuing a Transatlantic Free Trade and Investment Agreement with the EU, aimed at creating a Western bloc to resist the rising Chinese power.' The fascination of current EU …

Critical Legal Histories In Eu Law, Fernanda Nicola

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

INTRODUCTION: A workshop aiming to narrate the history of EU Law took place in November 2012 at a critical time for the very existence of the Union and its role as a global actor.' On the one hand, the current financial crisis is weakening some of the foundations and values that, in the last sixty years, EU lawyers, judges, and scholars have relied on. On the other hand, the U.S. government is pursuing a Transatlantic Free Trade and Investment Agreement with the EU, aimed at creating a Western bloc to resist the rising Chinese power.' The fascination of current EU …

A Framework For Assessing Global Economic Governance, Daniel D. Bradlow

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Increased globalization over the last twenty years has made effective global economic governance more important than ever. This period has witnessed the rise of a number of new international governance actors, such as the Group of Twenty and the Financial Stability Board. This Article proposes a five-part test to evaluate how the existing global governance actors serve the interests of all stakeholders in the global economy. The test is based on four fundamental indicators of good global governance. The Article uses the five-part test to evaluate the G20’s performance at the G20 Summit at Los Cabos, Mexico. Finally, this Article …

Managing Expectations: Beyond Formal Adjudication, Susan Franck

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The international investment system has depended heavily on international arbitration to provide guidance and clarification on the standards contained in international investment agreements. In order to assess the system realistically, this commentary discusses unpacking stakeholder expectations by recognizing where expectations may have been overly optimistic and thinking systematically about the mechanisms through which to capture and manage regulatory discretion. This article evaluates ideas expressed by Anne van Aaken and Bart Legum, which consider different ways to achieve regulatory and commercial balance, and offers a lens for thinking systematically about managing stakeholder expectations in the international investment system. A critical issue …

The U.S. Proposal For An Intellectual Property Chapter In The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, Sean Flynn, Brook Baker, Margot Kaminski, Jimmy Koo

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This article takes advantage of the breach in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiation’s secrecy to contribute to a new and growing collection of published scholarship on leaked proposals for international intellectual property agreements as they are being negotiated. We begin with the general provisions of the agreement, which define its relationship to the multilateral system. We then progress to analysis of some of the most important copyright, patent and data protection, and enforcement sections of the proposal, before providing some concluding observations. Our ultimate conclusion is that the U.S. proposal, if adopted, would upset the current international framework balancing the interests …

Through The Looking Glass: Understanding Social Science Norms For Analyzing International Investment Law, Susan Franck, Calvin Garbin, Jenna Perkins

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When social science methods are being employed in a new context — such as the assessment of international investment law — there is value in exploring the underlying assumptions and normative baselines of the enterprise. This article and response address critiques about the methodology of an article in the Harvard International Law Journal by: (1) describing the value of social science in international investment law; (2) replicating the research using new methodologies to conduct more than 20 new tests that were still unable to ascertain the existence of a reliable relationship between development status and outcomes on the basis of …

The Icsid Effect? Considering Potential Variations In Arbitration Awards, Susan Franck

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The legitimacy of the World Bank's dispute resolution body - The International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) - is a matter of heated debate. Some states have alleged that ICSID is biased, withdrawn from the ICSID Convention, and advocated creating alternative arbitration systems. Using pre-2007 archival data of the population of then- known arbitration awards, this Article quantitatively assesses whether ICSID arbitration awards were substantially different from arbitration awards rendered in other forums. The Article examines variation in the amounts claimed and outcomes reached to evaluate indicators of bias. The results indicated that there was no reliable …

Rationalizing Costs In Investment Treaty Arbitration, Susan Franck

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International investment and related disputes are on the rise. With national courts generally unavailable and difficulties resolving disputes through diplomacy, investment treaties give investors a right to seek redress and arbitrate directly with states. The costs of these investment treaty arbitrations - including the costs of lawyers for both sides, as well as administrative and tribunal expenses - are arguably substantial. This Article offers empirical research indicating that even partial costs could represent more than 10% of an average award. The data suggested a lack of certainty about total costs, which parties had ultimate liability for costs, and the justification …

The Human Element: The Impact Of Regional Trade Agreements On The Human Rights And The Rule Of Law, Claudio Grossman

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No abstract provided.

Transparency And The Expansion Of The Wto Mandate, Padideh Ala'i

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No abstract provided.

Acta's Constitutional Problems: The Treaty Is Not A Treaty, Sean Flynn

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On the eve of the United States’ entry into the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (“ACTA”), there is considerable confusion as to just what legal effect the agreement will have. In written answers to Senator Ron Wyden, the United States Trade Representative (“USTR”) went to lengths to describe ACTA as non-binding, asserting that “ACTA does not constrain Congress’ authority to change U.S. law,” and that it would operate only as an “Executive Agreement” that “can be implemented without new legislation.” But European negotiators have described the agreement to their legislature in very different terms, asserting that ACTA is “a binding international agreement …

Special 301 Of The Trade Act Of 1974 And Global Access To Medicine, Sean Flynn

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Since its inception in 1988, the United States Trade Representative’s “Special 301” adjudication of foreign intellectual property law standards has been used to promote policies restricting access to affordable medications around the world. President-elect Obama released a platform promising to “break the stranglehold that a few big drug and insurance companies have on these life-saving drugs” and pledged support for “the rights of sovereign nations to access quality-assured, low-cost generic medication to meet their pressing public health needs.” The 2009 and 2010 Special 301 reports, however, indicate that the Obama Administration has not yet implemented this pledge into administration trade …