Law Commons^™

Still Dissatisfied After All These Years: Intellectual Property, Post-Wto China, And The Avoidable Cycle Of Futility, Peter K. Yu

Peter K. Yu

No abstract provided.

When The Chinese Intellectual Property System Hits 35, Peter K. Yu

Peter K. Yu

This article explores what it means for the Chinese intellectual property system to hit 35. It begins by briefly recapturing the system’s three phases of development. It discusses the system’s evolution from its birth all the way to the present. The article then explores three different meanings of a middle-aged Chinese intellectual property system – one for intellectual property reform, one for China, and one for the TRIPS Agreement and the global intellectual property community.

After The Fall: Financial Crisis And The International Order, Robert B. Ahdieh

Robert B. Ahdieh

Recent years have challenged the international order to a degree not seen since World War II — and perhaps the Great Depression. As the U.S. housing crisis metastasized into a financial and economic crisis of grave proportions, and spread to nearly every corner of the globe, the strength of our international institutions — the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, the Group of Twenty, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, and others — was tested as never before. Likewise tested, were the limits of our national commitment to those institutions, to our international obligations, and to global engagement more …

Communitizing Transnational Regulatory Concerns, Sungjoon Cho, Cecilia M. Suh, Jacob Radecki

Sungjoon Cho

Overcoming The Geneva Impasse: How Regional Trade Agreements Can Help Global Trade, Chin Leng Lim

Chin Leng Lim

The World Trade Organisaton’s rules have permitted regional trade agreements since 1947. Over the years its membership has made only half-hearted efforts to tighten these rules. Without ignoring some well-known drawbacks which attend regional trade agreements, we need to understand the reasons for this hesitancy: regional agreements can help global trade.

The New Tobacco Products Directive And Wto Law: Much Ado About Nothing?, Lukasz A. Gruszczynski

Lukasz A Gruszczynski

The Dynamic Of Institutional Discrepancies And Growing Contradiction Within The International Economic Order, Chantal Thomas

Chantal Thomas

No abstract provided.

Working Borders: Linking Debates About Insourcing And Outsourcing Of Capital And Labor, Chantal Thomas

Chantal Thomas

No abstract provided.

Should The World Trade Organization Incorporate Labor And Environmental Standards?, Chantal Thomas

Chantal Thomas

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Change And International Government, Chantal Thomas

Chantal Thomas

No abstract provided.

Disciplining Globalization: International Law, Illegal Trade, And The Case Of Narcotics, Chantal Thomas

Chantal Thomas

No abstract provided.

The Club Approach To Multilateral Trade Lawmaking, Nicolas Lamp

Nicolas Lamp

The World Trade Organization (WTO) stands at the center of an emerging world of global economic governance. Its rules affect important aspects of all our lives – how much we pay for the products that we purchase, what types of employment are open to us, and which medicines we can access. And yet, while the WTO was conceived as a “negotiating machine” that would develop rules in sync with an increasingly dynamic global economy, negotiations on a new set of global trade rules have now been deadlocked for over a decade. This impasse is all the more surprising in light …

‘The Law Works Itself Pure’: The Fragmented Disciplines Of Global Trade And Monetary Cooperation, And The Chinese Currency Problem, Chin Leng Lim

Chin Leng Lim

This chapter considers the long-standing controversy over the Chinese yuan – the primary unit of account of the renminbi, or RMB, the official currency of the People’s Republic of China. The currency valuation interventions of the People’s Bank of China (PBC) have been the subject of international disagreement, not least between the USA and China. Criticism of China in the USA became especially heated during the 2009 to 2012 period, occurring in the aftermath of the global financial and economic crisis and coinciding with the period of the great recession. Other countries, such as Brazil, also drew critical attention to …

“Gatting” The New Climate Treaty Right: Leveraging Energy Subsidies To Promote Multilateralism, Deepa Badrinarayana

Deepa Badrinarayana

Global Laws, Local Lives: Impact Of The New Regionalism On Human Rights Compliance, Stephen J. Powell, Patricia Camino Pérez

Stephen Joseph Powell

Continuation of the brisk pace of international economic growth with its necessarily increased use of natural resources—often at unsustainable levels—and its higher levels of pollution—often at the cost of citizen health—combine with the rules of the global trading system to threaten human rights to health, to freedom from forced or child labor, to non-discrimination, to a fair wage, to a healthy environment, even to democratic governance and participation in the political process. As a result, in recent years a growing number of economists begrudgingly acknowledge the incontrovertible—although presently dysfunctional—linkage between trade and human rights and the need to integrate these …

The Role Of United States Trade Laws In Resolving The Florida-Mexico Tomato Conflict, Stephen J. Powell, Mark A. Barnett

Stephen Joseph Powell

For discussion purposes, we have been asked to assume that the agreement entered into in October 1996 between the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) and Mexican tomato exporters, which resulted in suspension of an antidumping investigation of tomatoes from Mexico, has ended. The new owner of many of Florida's winter vegetable producers, concerned with the continuing rise in market share represented by Mexican imports, is considering further action under the trade remedy and other laws. This article will discuss the potential role of the antidumping and countervailing duty laws in these deliberations, as well as the operation of the dispute …

Is The Wto Quietly Fading Away?: The New Regionalism And Global Trade Rules, Stephen J. Powell, Trisha Low

Stephen Joseph Powell

While scholars and governments alike view the liberalization of international trade as a positive development, they disagree on the medium that will accomplish this objective with the highest economic returns. Some experts believe that multilateralism through the 150+ member World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only way to achieve truly open and efficient trade. Others view multilateralism as but an aspiration and find that regionalism offers the only viable prospect for the meaningful further opening of markets. In light of what we label the "new regionalism," our paper explores in detail the positive and negative effects of regional trade arrangements …

The Cotton And Sugar Subsidies Decisions: Wto's Dispute Settlement System Rebalances The Agreement On Agriculture, Stephen J. Powell, Andrew Schmitz

Stephen Joseph Powell

As far back as David Ricardo's shattering insight as to comparative advantage in 1817, agriculture has enjoyed special favor in trade. The unique place of farming was so well established by the time the 1947 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade ("GATT") was negotiated that GATT's tight disciplines on government interference with free trade not only exempted government protections to growers, but in fact were drafted to be fully consistent with the agricultural policies of the major signatories. While it would be an exaggeration to argue that GATT' s first half century was without impact on agricultural benefits, the sector …

Limiting Anticompetitive Government Interventions That Benefit Special Interests, D. Daniel Sokol

D. Daniel Sokol

When government regulates, it may either intentionally or unintentionally generate restraints that reduce competition ("public restraints"). Public restraints allow a business to cloak its action in government authority and to immunize it from antitrust regulation. Private businesses may misuse the government's grant of antitrust immunity to facilitate behavior that benefits businesses at consumers' expense. One way is by obtaining government grants of immunity from antitrust scrutiny. A recent series of Supreme Court decisions has made this situation worse by limiting the reach of antitrust law in favor of sector regulation. This is true even though the Supreme Court refers to …

Us - Tuna: Implications For The Definition Of Technical Regulation And For Developing Countries, Henri Joel Nkuepo

Henri Joel Nkuepo

Before US – Tuna, defining a technical regulation was less confusing. Developing countries could rely on the guidelines provided by both the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Panel could rely on the definition of technical regulation as explained in EC – Asbestos by the Appellate Body (AB). The paper at hand shows how the AB’s definition of a technical regulation in US – Tuna will affect future cases and examines its impact on developing countries’ understanding of Annex 1.1 of the Technical Barrier to Trade Agreement (TBT).

Acuerdo De Facilitación Al Comercio De La Omc: Eficiencia En Las Cadenas De Suministro Mundiales, Rodolfo C. Rivas Rea

Rodolfo C. Rivas

The author provides a brief overview of the negotiation process of the Trade Facilitation Agreement under the WTO and the bringing to a successful conclusion of the agreement during the Ninth Ministerial Conference hosted by Indonesia. The author then delves into the general contents of the agreement and the possible benefits it can bring to the private sector, specifically in relation to the Global value chains. ////////////////////////////////////// El autor ofrece un breve panorama general del proceso de negociación del Acuerdo de Facilitación del Comercio (AFC) de la OMC y la exitosa conclusión del acuerdo durante la Novena Conferencia Ministerial en …

Us-China Trade Relations—Litigation In The Wto 2001–2014., Stuart Malawer

stuart malawer

No abstract provided.

Behavioral International Law, Tomer Broude

Tomer Broude

Economic analysis and rational choice have in the last decade made significant inroads into the study of international law and institutions, relying upon standard assumptions of perfect rationality of states and decision-makers. This approach is inadequate, both empirically and in its tendency towards outdated formulations of political theory. This article presents an alternative behavioral approach that provides new hypotheses addressing problems in international law while introducing empirically grounded concepts of real, observed rationality. First, I address methodological objections to behavioral analysis of international law: the focus of behavioral research on the individual; the empirical foundations of behavioral economics; and behavioral …

The Depth Of The Trade In Services Agreement, Harold Godsoe

Harold Godsoe

The setting against which plurilateral negotiations toward a new Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) are taking place is frustration. Service liberalization from GATS to bilateral PTAs to the Doha round have proven difficult and/or ineffective. The glaring and unexamined question is: why? This paper examines the current trade literature for what is known about TISA to date and subjects that information to a feasibility analysis for trade in service agreements. My goal is to understand what went wrong in previous attempts to liberalize services and/or trade and, consequently, what might being going wrong in TISA, and how it might be …

Australian Plain Packaging Law, International Litigations And Regulatory Chilling Effect, Lukasz A. Gruszczynski

Lukasz A Gruszczynski

Introduction of plain packaging law by Australia in 2012 was met with strong opposition from transnational tobacco companies (TTCs). While advocates of the law see it as a logical step in governmental efforts to curb tobacco use and improve public health in Australia, TTCs claim that the new law is scientifically unsound, overly intrusive and that it infringes a number of international law provisions relating to trademark and property protection. Some TTCs, either directly or indirectly,have decided to test the Australian measure before international tribunals. Although, these challenges are connectedwith interests held by TTCs in Australia, they should be seen …

International Economic Law And The Right To Food, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Carmen G. Gonzalez

This chapter examines the historic and current policies and practices that have contributed to food insecurity in the global South. It analyzes the impact of international economic law on the patterns of trade and production that perpetuate food insecurity, and recommends concrete measures that the international community might take through law and regulation to promote the fundamental human right to food. Part I provides a short introduction to the right to food framework and its implications for international trade, investment, and finance. Part II places the current food crisis in historical perspective by discussing the trade and aid policies that …

The Wages Of Belonging: Rare Earths From China, And The Return Of Gatt À La Carte, Chin Leng Lim, J. H. Senduk

Chin Leng Lim

China has lost the Rare Earths case before a Panel which, however, split 2:1 on whether the Chinese Accession Protocol's general ban on export duties would allow General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Article XX to be invoked. The question affects whether other Recently Acceded Members' (RAMs') WTO-plus terms of accession should generally be read together with the GATT. Export quotas are unproblematic because Article XI is contained in the GATT. China's quota-based conservation measures were however strictly scrutinized, raising other questions about the room RAMs have to invoke Article XX if they might have to depend upon highly …

Legal Services In The United States, Laurel S. Terry, Erica Moeser

Laurel S. Terry

Transparency In International Economic Relations And The Role Of The Wto, Padideh Ala'i , Matthew D'Orsi

Padideh Ala'i

Plain Packaging And The Interpretation Of The Trips Agreement, Daniel J. Gervais, Susy Frankel

Daniel J Gervais

Plain packaging of cigarettes as a way of reducing tobacco consumption and its related health costs and effects raises a number of international trade law issues. The plain packaging measures adopted in Australia impose strict format requirements on word trademarks (such as Marlboro or Camel) and ban the use of figurative marks (colors, logos, etc.). As a result, questions have been raised as to plain packaging’s compatibility with the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement). WTO members can validly take measures to protect and promote public health, but in doing so they …