International Trade Law Commons^™

Freedom And Governance In U.S. Arbitration Law, Thomas E. Carbonneau

Global Business Law Review

Professor Carbonneau will discuss the possible impact of recent United States Supreme Court decisions on international arbitration. The opinions he will refer to could indicate a reversal of the Court’s position on arbitration that would undermine arbitration’s prominence as a means of resolving international commercial disputes. He will then discuss the negative effects international commerce could experience as a consequence.

Transnational Securities Fraud And The Extraterritorial Application Of U.S. Securities Laws: Challenges And Opportunities, Genevieve Beyea

Global Business Law Review

With globalization, securities markets have become increasingly interconnected, and securities fraud has frequently crossed borders, creating problems for national regulators seeking to deter and punish fraud. The United States’ well-developed private enforcement mechanism for securities fraud is very attractive to investors around the world who are harmed by transnational securities fraud, particularly those from countries where private enforcement mechanisms do not exist or fraud is under-regulated. The application of U.S. securities law to foreign investors, however, presents a number of challenges, creating the potential for both under and overregulation as well as possible conflict with the regulatory systems of other …

Jurisdiction Issues In International Arbitration, Mitchell L. Lathrop

Global Business Law Review

Arbitration, and particularly international arbitration, involves jurisdictional issues beyond those normally encountered in traditional judicial proceedings. This article will describe prominent jurisdictional issues in international arbitration based on recent pronouncements of judicial and arbitral authorities. From effecting notice of the arbitration proceedings to the improper composition of the arbitral authority, this article will discuss jurisdictional issues that can arise at any time during an arbitration proceeding, and how they can affect the enforcement of an award.

Internet Contracting And E-Commerce Disputes: International And U. S. Personal Jurisdiction , Anne Mccafferty

Global Business Law Review

In cases involving international defendants, a variety of bases have been deemed appropriate for a U.S. court to assert personal jurisdiction, including nationality, domicile, “purposeful availment,” and a number of federal statutes. With the explosion of the Internet and the resulting expansion of international business transactions via the Web, courts have struggled to adapt traditional modes of adjudication consistent with established common, statutory and international law. Internet transactions—now known as e-commerce—involve the “practice of buying and selling goods and services through online consumer services on the Internet.” In a sphere of commerce apparently limitless in its reach, this article explores …

Piercing The Corporate Veil In International Arbitration, Yaraslau Kryvoi Ph.D.

Global Business Law Review

This article examines the application of the piercing the corporate veil concept in international arbitration. Interpretation of this concept is inconsistent even within one domestic legal system, and it is even less predictable in international arbitration when several legal systems come into play. Piercing the corporate veil may help to give a concrete practical meaning to the purpose of an arbitration agreement or a bilateral investment treaty. However, there are downsides of such piercing because it negates many of the benefits which the corporate form offers. Domestic courts are likely not to recognize and enforce an arbitration award piercing the …

How Developing Countries Can Adapt Current Bilateral Investment Treaties To Provide Benefits To Their Domestic Economies, Joshua Boone

Global Business Law Review

Bilateral investment treaties (hereinafter "BIT") have been created with the goal of promoting economic prosperity through the facilitation of international investment flows. The idea was to facilitate these investment flows by the opening up of secure channels for foreign direct investment (hereinafter "FDI"), stabilizing the investment climate, granting protective investment guarantees, and providing neutral dispute mechanisms for "injured" investors. Since their inception in 1959, BITs have experienced a "massive and sudden proliferation . . . which has been . . . a 'remarkable' event in international law[,]" and as of the end of 2008, there were over 2,600 BITs in …

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

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Enforcing International Insurers’ Expectations: Can States Unilaterally Quash Commercial Arbitration Agreements Under The Mccarran-Ferguson Act?, Mary Pennisi

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

This Note examines the split in federal circuit courts created by Safety National Casualty Corp. on whether the MFA reverse-preempts the New York Convention and allows states to quash arbitration agreements in international insurance contracts.

An Empirical Analysis Of Wealth Disparities In Wto Disputes:
 Do Poorer Countries Suffer From Strategic Delay During Dispute Litigation?, Geoffrey Antell, James W. Coleman

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

A long-standing debate questions whether the World Trade Organization’s (“WTO”) formal dispute settlement procedures level the playing field for lower income countries in international trade disputes, or instead, merely give opportunistic and sophisticated countries complex rules that they can use to exploit these lower income countries. Using a database of cases decided under the WTO, this article examines whether there is evidence that developing countries suffer strategic delay when they sue developed countries. Strategic delay is a crucial consideration in WTO proceedings because, unlike in typical litigation, the WTO dispute settlement process does not offer backward-looking remedies. As a result, …

"Consumer Choice" Is Where We Are All Going - So Let's Go Together, Neil W. Averitt, Robert H. Lande, Paul Nihoul

All Faculty Scholarship

Globalisation of business makes it important for firms to predict how their behaviour is likely to be treated in the roughly 200 nations that have competition laws. In that context, a crucial question is: are we in a position to develop a common intellectual framework that would give coherence to policy statements made on specific competition related issues and, at the same time, be acceptable, broadly, in a variety of legal systems, not necessarily based on identical assumptions? We believe that the answer is “yes.” A concept is emerging as a possible source of unification for competition policies around the …

The Surprising Benefits To Developing Countries Of Linking International Trade And Intellectual Property, Rachel Brewster

Faculty Scholarship

The World Trade Organization's Trade Related Intellectual Property (TRIPS) Agreement is controversial, requiring WTO members to establish a host of domestic institutions to support intellectual property rights, including substantive laws creating rights and a host of enforcement procedures. Trade scholars and development advocates frequently criticize the agreement as economically harmful to developing countries. This Article does not argue that the TRIPS Agreement is beneficial for developing states, but highlights how the agreement has produced some surprising benefits over the last decade and a half. First, the TRIPS Agreement's requirement that developing states make the domestic enforcement of intellectual property rules …

The Remedy Gap: Institutional Design, Retaliation, And Trade Law Enforcement, Rachel Brewster

Faculty Scholarship

One of the major innovations of the World Trade Organization’s (“WTO”) Dispute Settlement Understanding (“DSU”) is the regulation of sanctions in response to violations of trade law. The DSU requires governments to receive multilateral approval before suspending trade concessions and limits the extent of retaliation to prospective damages. In addition, the DSU permits governments to impose only conditional sanctions: sanctions for violations that continue after the dispute resolution process is complete. This enforcement regime creates a remedy gap: governments cannot respond, even to obvious breaches, until the end of the dispute resolution process (and then only to the extent of …

Post-Wto China Tax Law System Reform And The Rule Of Law: Progress And Prospects, Tianlong Hu

SJD Dissertations

A close examination of China's accession commitments reveals that effective economic reform and trade liberalization call for substantiations from a matching legal infrastructure reform. For example, taxpayers' rights protection should be viewed in terms of broader political and civil rights reform. Indeed, a number of the values featured in the WTO principles and the rule of law framework encourage China's further integration into both the global trade network and the international human rights regime. This is particularly evident in the Chinese tax law context. WTO principles and the rule of law requirements must be introduced and evaluated together in tax …

Paul Timmermans On Invisible War: The United States And The Iraq Sanctions. By Joy Gordon. Cambridge, Ma: Harvard University Press, 2010. 359 Pp., Paul Timmermans

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Invisible War: The United States and the Iraq Sanctions. By Joy Gordon. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010. 359 pp.

Taking Stock: China's First Decade Of Free Trade, Jun Zhao, Timothy Webster

Faculty Publications

China has established itself as a global economic presence in the past ten years. This article explains one important but overlooked aspect of this rise, China’s newfound interest in free trade agreements (FTAs). This paper situates the FTA boom within a framework of international political economy and China’s recent regional rise. This paper probes the question of how China selects its FTA partners, referencing US trade practice and policy as a framework by which to analyze China’s own preferences. This paper then explores the main features of China’s FTAs, finding that it has adopted a flexible FTA strategy that attends …

2010 International Trade Law Decisions Of The Federal Circuit, Kevin J. Fandl

American University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rethinking The Commercial Law Treaty, John F. Coyle

Georgia Law Review

In international commercial transactions, it is not
always clear which state's law will apply to govern a
particular contract. Historically, states have sought to
address this problem by means of two types of treaties.
The first aims to solve the problem by bringing about the
substantive unification of commercial law across multiple
jurisdictions;once the law is everywhere the same, then it
no longer matters which state's law applies to govern the
contract. The second aims to solve the problem in part by
empowering the transacting parties to choose the law that
will govern their contract; once these parties know that …

International Arbitration Of Patent Disputes, 10 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 384 (2011), Wei-Hua Wu

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

This paper discusses the concept of using international arbitration as a method of resolving patent disputes. First, this paper examines the arbitrability of patent validity disputes from a public policy viewpoint. The question is whether, or to what extent, the subject matter of patent validity disputes may be settled by international commercial arbitration. Second, this paper provides suggestions on strategies for organizational decision-makers to consider whether it is proper to choose arbitration as a more favorable tool when confronted with a patent dispute. Finally, this paper discusses how to choose the seat of arbitral institution and the applicable law.

Do You Mind My Smoking? Plain Packaging Of Cigarettes Under The Trips Agreement, 10 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 450 (2011), Alberto Alemanno, Enrico Bonadio

UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law

Plain packaging, a new tobacco control tool that a growing number of countries are considering, mandates the removal of all attractive and promotional aspects of tobacco product packages. As a result of plain packaging, the only authorized feature remaining on a tobacco package is the use of the brand name, displayed in a standard font, size, colour and location on the package. In opposing this new strategy, the tobacco industry is particularly keen on emphasizing the uselessness of plain packaging in reducing smoking rates and its incompatibility with trade mark provisions of international treaties. In particular, the tobacco industry and …

"Competence-Competence And Separability-American Style", Published As Chapter 8 In International Arbitration And International Commercial Law: Synergy, Convergence And Evolution, Jack M. Graves, Yelena Davydan

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Limited Case For Permitting Sme Procurement Preferences In The Wto Agreement On Government Procurement, John Linarelli

Scholarly Works

This is a chapter in the book, Sue Arrowsmith & Robert D. Anderson, The WTO Regime on Government Procurement: Challenge and Reform (Cambridge University Press, 2011). The chapter puts under scrutiny public procurement policies designed to benefit SMEs per se, as small or medium sized enterprises, and to evaluate whether the GPA (and hence possibly other trade agreements liberalizing procurement markets) should be more accommodating to these policies, even though these policies might restrict international trade. The chapter also evaluates whether the GPA should be more accommodating to policies designed to benefit firms controlled by individuals who belong to historically …

Cisg Article 6 And Issues Of Formation: The Problem Of Circularity, Jack M. Graves

Scholarly Works

CISG Article 6 broadly allows parties to exclude the application of the CISG or derogate from its provisions. The application of Article 6 is relatively straightforward when addressing the rights and obligations of the parties, but encounters a challenge of circularity when addressing issues of contract formation. How can the parties agree to exclude or derogate from the application of the CISG if it is not yet clear whether they have agreed to anything at all? This article explores this narrow, but important question. Can the parties effectively exclude the application of the CISG or derogate from its provisions (i.e., …

Comparative Efficiency In International Sales Law, Larry A. Dimatteo, Daniel Ostas

UF Law Faculty Publications

The article employs the method of the economic analysis of law (EAL) in a comparative context. In particular, it assesses the efficiency of select provisions of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). The CISG is the law of the United States and over 70 other countries. It reflects a culmination of a century-old process of failed attempts to achieve an international sales law. The drafting process involved intense negotiation and compromise between representatives of the common and civil law legal traditions. As a result, the CISG provides in an interesting amalgam of civil …

A Critical Look At The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, David M. Quinn

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

On October 23, 2007, the United States announced an initiative to strengthen intellectual property enforcement measures within the international community via the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (“ACTA”). During the following years, eleven rounds of negotiations among as many parties culminated in a finalized text released on December 3, 2010. The dialogue occurred outside the purview of existing bodies such as the WIPO and WTO. The ACTA now awaits acceptance following the March 31, 2011 commencement of the ratification period. It will enter into force thirty days following the sixth formal approval.

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

UF Law Faculty Publications

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 …

State Power, Religion, And Women's Rights: A Comparative Analysis Of Family Law, Mala Htun, S. Laurel Weldon

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Examining cross-national variation in family law, we find that many countries have reformed to promote sex equality. Yet a significant group retains older laws that discriminate against women. These variations reflect the diverse institutional legacies of these societies, conforming closely-but not entirely-to inherited legal traditions: civil law, common law, and postsocialist countries are the most egalitarian, while countries applying religious law are the least. Yet change is possible, even in unlikely contexts. Political conjunctures that disarm religious, nationalist, and fundamentalist opponents can open windows of opportunity for liberalizing reform.

Human Rights and Legal Systems Across the Global South, Symposium, Indiana …

Acta And The Specter Of Graduated Response , Annemarie Bridy

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Trade And Investment In The Philippines, Hazel C. Parcon-Santos

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

Developing countries such as the Philippines relies heavily on trade and foreign direct investment (FDI), consequently leading to economic integration, which in its entireity, determines the country’s economic condition. As such, we believe that there is a need to further study the impact of these external variables on the competitiveness and efficiency of the Philippine economy.

Issues On International Trade And Investment And Its Implications For Further Research, Angelo B. Taningco

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

Recent developments in the field of international trade and investments worldwide have led to contemporary literature that encompass international trade in goods and services, trade policies, bilateral and regional free trade agreements (FTAs) as well as multilateral trading arrangements, trade facilitation measures, and foreign direct investment (FDI) policies. Given the increasing significance of multilateral trade and FDI flows between regions in recent years, there is a need of further research especially for developing countries like the Philippines. As such, it will be possible to develop efficient trade and investment policies, which relate to inclusive growth and development. Results suggest that …

Pushing The Limits Of Global Governance: Trading Rights, Censorship And Wto Jurisprudence - A Commentary On The China-Publications Case, Julia Ya Qin

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.