International Trade Law Commons^™

Domestic Stability And International Trade Order, Sannoy Das

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article challenges the theoretical frameworks through which we have so far apprehended the crisis of the liberal international trade and economic order, precipitated by relentless unilateral action--whether tariffs or industrial policy--especally in the United States. It argues that the conventional concerns about unilateralism overlook the ways in which unilateraism has been--and can be-- a foundation for international order rather than its antithesis. Our contemporary difficulty is that we typically understand unilateral action as a breach of an international norm. This way of thinking follows from nineteenth-century liberal internationalism. But a deeper tradition in the law of nations shows that …

Double Standards In The Drug Trade: How European Nations Escape Sanctions While Senegal May Bear The Burden, Erin Soro

American University International Law Review

The focus of international drug control policies on sanctioning transit countries like Senegal for drug trafficking overlooks the significant role played by drug-consuming nations such as France and Spain. Despite a notable decrease in local drug consumption due to democratic progress and strong religious roots, Senegal remains a major transit hub for narcotics destined for Europe. This Comment argues that drug-consuming countries are equally culpable under international law and should face comparable sanctions to effectively address the global drug trade. This Comment highlights the imbalance in sanction implementation and advocates for a more equitable approach, recommending minimal sanctions for Senegal …

Key Developments At The World Bank Inspection Panel (2013-2024), Dilek Barlas

Perspectives

Through the lens of important cases, this essay reflects on major developments that occurred at the Panel during the tenure of the author as the Executive Secretary of the World Bank Inspection Panel and shows how the Panel has evolved to improve accessibility, has influenced overall development policies, and has become a catalyst for institutional change. The essay observes that the Panel’s success has largely been due to its structural and operational independence, reporting as it does directly to the Bank’s Board of Executive Directors. However, there are challenges facing the Panel on certain issues, including most importantly its independence, …

How The International Investment Law Regime Undermines Access To Justice For Investment-Affected Stakeholders, Ladan Mehranvar

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

For over a decade now, the international investment law regime, which includes investment treaties and their central pillar, the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism, has been facing sustained calls for reform. These have largely centered on the concerns regarding the high costs of ISDS, the restrictions placed by the investment treaty regime on the right—or duty—of states to regulate in the public interest, and the questionable benefits arising from these treaties in the first place. Several states have taken proactive measures: some have revised investment treaty standards to better protect their regulatory powers; others have introduced new approaches to investment …

Addressing The Negative Externalities Of Trade: Flanking Policies And The Role Of Package Treaties, Gregory Shaffer

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article examines the rationales for addressing sustainability and social inclusion in trade policy and the tradeoffs among imperfect institutional choices in doing so through “flanking policies.” It examines three types of negative spillovers or externalities implicated by trade: material, moral, and social/political. Part I defines terms and sets forth the argument. Part II typologizes the three categories of negative externalities and then highlights the challenges posed for flanking measures given the reciprocal nature of externalities. It respectively addresses environmental harms and labor and social inclusion concerns. Part III assesses different institutional choices for addressing negative externalities, dividing them between …

The Wto Of The Future: Keeping The Wto Digitally Relevant Through The Jsi On E-Commerce, Qiu Xu Liao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Members of the WTO have long regarded e-commerce as an issue of lesser priority. Though seeking to tackle e-commerce issues since 1998 with a Work Programme, progress on enacting WTO law on the matter has remained largely stagnant. To combat two decades of relative inaction, the Joint Statement Initiative on e-commerce was introduced in 2017. Now, within a decade, the JSI has drafted and released a finalised agreement which is now looked towards being integrated into the WTO legal framework. This article explores the history of the JSI, why it has been successful, and how it has overcome previous indifference …

Can Mediation Provide Remedy For Human Rights Violations? A Quest For Justice Using A Development Bank Accountability Mechanism, Natalie Bugalski, David Pred

Perspectives

This essay describes what it takes—the enormous tenacity, solidarity, courage and skill required—for communities and their civil society partners to seek recourse through the dispute resolution processes of development bank accountability mechanisms. While these mechanisms can be the crucial centerpiece of an effective strategy, their critical shortcomings mean that community advocates must often engage in Olympian advocacy gymnastics to achieve even a small measure of redress. The essay makes recommendations for strengthening community-centered accountability in development finance, so that remediation and prevention of harm become the norm, and not the rare exception.

Ending Violence In Development Finance Actions To Affirmatively Prevent And Stop Reprisals Against Rights Defenders, Gregory Berry

Perspectives

This Essay makes a case for stronger enforcement and implementation of zero-tolerance policies on reprisals within Development Finance Institutions. It argues that for DFIs to inculcate any hopeful vision of a just and inclusive transition to a sustainable future, they must begin by affirmatively cutting at the roots of reprisals. The essay particularly emphasizes two essential changes. First, Independent Accountability and Audit Mechanisms must be empowered to protect the safety of defenders by self-initiating investigations where there are credible concerns of reprisals, and by accepting anonymously submitted complaints. Second, DFIs must evolve to grow teeth for enforcing measures against retaliatory …

Reflections On The Role Of The Panel, Charles Di Leva

Perspectives

Over the past thirty years, the World Bank and the Inspection Panel have had a supportive relationship regarding the principle of accountability, particularly as applied to the field of development finance operations and the role and responsibility of the Bank as a multilateral public sector financial institution. This relationship has been apparent in at least three key aspects: i) following the Bank’s lead, many development institutions around the globe have taken steps to improve their own accountability and developed independent accountability mechanisms (IAMs) modeled on the Inspection Panel; ii) the Bank and other development institutions have been supporting the development …

Rethinking 'What Counts' As Accountability, Jonathan Fox

Perspectives

The current accountability impasse suggests it may be time to rethink core concepts, as well as the field’s underlying theories of change. The idea of accountability is malleable, ambiguous — and contested. This fuzziness poses challenges for both theory and practice – how do we know what strategies bolster accountability – or whether accountability produces its expected effects? This think piece recognizes the challenge of defining ‘what counts’ as accountability, unpacks a longstanding theory of change - that sunshine is the best disinfectant - and considers some information-based reform initiatives to identify missing links in the causal chain between transparency …

Three Decades Of Seeking Elusive Remedies, Richard E. Bissell

Perspectives

Remedy is a topic to be approached with some trepidation in the area of accountability. Throughout three decades of proliferating International Accountability Mechanisms ( IAMs), remedy has been the issue least addressed by leadership. Most management and board members find it threatening, wherever a remedial action falls on the spectrum, from an apology for error to financial compensation. The pursuit of remedy builds on the demonstrated existence of harm, which is embarrassing at the least, and brings a focus on consequences and actionable steps for those people whose lives have been damaged as well as for environmental violations. This short …

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

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

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 …

What Role For The Wto In Disciplining China’S State-Dominated Economy?, Jennifer A. Hillman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Is the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its rules-based system capable of addressing the distortions in trade caused by the explosive growth of China’s State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs)? If it is, why hasn’t it been put to use? If the WTO rules are not up to task, where and how do they need to be changed? Those are the questions that Henry Gao and Weihuan Zhou answer in their thorough and compelling assessment of the current state of China’s SOEs, the commitments China made when it joined the WTO and the relevance of the applicable WTO rules, Between Market Economy and …

The Second Transformation Of The International Intellectual Property Regime, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter focuses on the structural changes that international investment norms have posed to the international intellectual property regime. It begins by documenting the regime’s first transformation by the adoption of the TRIPS Agreement and the marriage of intellectual property and trade through the World Trade Organization. The chapter then explores the regime’s potential second transformation when bilateral, regional, and plurilateral agreements and new investor-state disputes have caused international investment norms to intrude into the intellectual property domain. It continues to identify three sets of problems that have emerged from such intrusion. The chapter concludes by proposing three solutions to …

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 …

Triping On Trade Secrets: How China’S Cybertheft Of U.S. Trade Secrets Violated Trips, Kassidy Schmitz

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Artificial Intelligence And Trade, Anupam Chander

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Artificial Intelligence is already powering trade today. It is crossing borders, learning, making decisions, and operating cyber-physical systems. It underlies many of the services that are offered today – from customer service chatbots to customer relations software to business processes. The chapter considers AI regulation from the perspective of international trade law. It argues that foreign AI should be regulated by governments – indeed that AI must be ‘locally responsible’. The chapter refutes arguments that trade law should not apply to AI and shows how the WTO agreements might apply to AI using two hypothetical cases . The analysis reveals …

Global Animal Law And International Trade Law After Ec-Seal Products: An Interactional Analysis, Katie Sykes

PhD Dissertations

This thesis is a case study of the formation of new norms in international law. The norms are those that concern animal protection. The thesis argues that international trade law is playing a part in the development of international legal norms for animal protection. The theoretical model applied is interactional international law, the theory of the constructivist international legal scholars Jutta Brunnée and Stephen Toope. Interactional theory posits that legitimate, binding international law arises from norms based on shared understandings, exhibits specifically legal characteristics that correspond to Lon Fuller’s criteria of legality, and is created, maintained and supported through interaction …

Are Data Privacy Laws Trade Barriers?, Margot Kaminski

Publications

No abstract provided.

World Trade And Investment Law In A Time Of Crisis: Distribution, Development And Social Protection, David M. Trubek, Alvaro Santos, Chantal Thomas

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

World trade and investment law is in crisis: new and progressive ideas are needed. Rules that facilitated globalization and supported global economic growth are being challenged. A system of global governance that once seemed secure is now at risk as the US ignores the rules while developing countries struggle to escape restrictions. Some want to tear global institutions and agreements down while others try desperately to maintain the status quo. Rejecting both options, we convened a group of trade and investment law experts from 10 countries South and North who have proposed ideas for a new world trade and investment …

The New Frontier For Labor In Trade Agreements, Alvaro Santos

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In the spring of 2015, I took my students of international trade law to visit the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva. It was a two-day trip, organized around lectures and discussions with staff from different divisions of the organization, the Advisory Centre of WTO Law and the permanent missions of two countries. None of my students had been there before, and even though I had taught international trade law for several years, it was also my first time visiting the headquarters of the organization. We were excited and curious. The building looked big and majestic. The back side opened …

Building Bridges: International Trade Law, Internet Governance, And The Regulation Of Data Flows, Neha Mishra

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The regulation of internet data flows touches upon various distinct disciplines including internet governance and international trade law. In internet governance, three fundamental principles, namely, internet openness, internet security, and internet privacy apply to regulation of internet data flows. This Article argues that internet privacy and security, when implemented in a reasoned and transparent manner by different stakeholders, enable internet openness--thus, challenging the dominant perspective that cybersecurity and privacy requirements constrain the free flow of data. Further, this Article introduces a unique perspective by arguing that these three principles (notwithstanding their nonbinding nature) play an important role in applying trade …

Dispute Settlement Under The Next Generation Of Free Trade Agreements, Kathleen Claussen

Articles

No abstract provided.

Data At The Docks: Modernizing International Trade Law For The Digital Economy, Andrew D. Mitchell, Neha Mishra

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has been slow so far in responding to the various challenges arising from the integration of electronic commerce into cross-border trading activities. This slow response in the multilateral system is largely attributable to the complex, multifaceted nature of digital trade or electronic commerce, coupled with the conflict among countries on issues of Internet regulation and digital development. Nonetheless, international trade agreements, particularly at the WTO, play an important role in the creation of a secure, predictable, and trustworthy global regulatory framework for digital trade, and therefore, need to be reformed in a timely and meaningful …

China’S Rise: How It Took On The U.S. At The Wto, Greg Shaffer, Henry S. Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This Article builds from original fieldwork to show what lies behind China’s remarkably successful use of international trade law to take on the United States and Europe. The World Trade Organization (“WTO”) is unique in China’s international relations as it is the only forum where China, with its anti-legalist traditions, has resolved its disputes through law and the use of third-party dispute settlement. After China acceded to the WTO in 2001, it invested massively in building trade law capacity to transform itself and defend itself externally. Through these investments and its increased market power, China became a serious rival to …

President Trump, Trade Policy, And American Grand Strategy: From Common Advantage To Collective Carnage, David P. Fidler

Articles by Maurer Faculty

As a candidate for president of the United States, Donald J. Trump promised to abandon longstanding U.S. approaches to trade and pursue strategies anchored in protectionism and nationalism. This article examines President Trump’s trade policy ideas and proposals and highlights the extent to which he intends to disrupt traditions of U.S. policymaking on trade. The article also analyzes whether domestic and international politics might shift the Trump administration away from a radical approach back towards trade policies that approximate how the United States has managed trade for decades. If such a shift does not occur, the Trump administration’s trade policy …

Is The Albert H Kritzer Database Telling Us More Than We Know?, Thomas Neumann

Pace International Law Review

This article is the first in a series of articles attempting to provide a geographical and temporal overview of the application practice of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). In this first article, the success of CISG is explored. The article develops the idea of using the Albert H. Kritzer Database to achieve an overview of the success of the Convention in practice. It is argued that the success of the Convention is useful to measure by its uniformity in practice, and therefore a set of criteria relating to the Convention’s application by …

Confused, Frustrated, And Exhausted: Solving The U.S. Digital First Sale Doctrine Problem Through The International Lens, Alandis K. Brassel

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Users worldwide enjoy digital goods such as music and e-books on a daily basis. They have become a major part of people's lives, with uses ranging from lighthearted entertainment to serious educational pursuits. In many cases, convenience and affordability make digital goods more preferable than their analog counterparts. However, users often cannot use digital goods as freely as they would analog goods. Courts, legislation, and businesses prohibit those users, accustomed to reselling unwanted hard-copy books or vinyl records, from reselling digital books and music. This confuses users as to what they can actually do with their digital goods. This Note …

If You Can't Beat Them, Join Them: The U.S. Solution To The Issue Of Corporate Inversions, Scott Deangelis

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

There is an old proverb, "If you can't beat them, join them, "that suggests that those who cannot win against some group should stop fighting and instead band together with them. It seems clear that when it comes to corporate inversions, the United States cannot win. Instead, countries overseas have taken advantage of tax break schemes to lure multinational companies away from the United States. This Note suggests that to prevent further foreign inversions, the United States should join these foreign countries in two ways. First, the United States should put its support behind the OECD's plan of a multilateral …

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

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

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 …