International Trade Law Commons^™

Implementing User Rights For Research In The Field Of Artificial Intelligence: A Call For International Action, Sean Flynn, Christophe Geiger, João Pedro Quintais, Thomas Margoni, Matthew Sag, Lucie Guibault, Michael W. Carroll

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

Last year, before the onset of a global pandemic highlighted the critical and urgent need for technology-enabled scientific research, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) launched an inquiry into issues at the intersection of intellectual property (IP) and artificial intelligence (AI). We contributed comments to that inquiry, with a focus on the application of copyright to the use of text and data mining (TDM) technology. This article describes some of the most salient points of our submission and concludes by stressing the need for international leadership on this important topic. WIPO could help fill the current gap on international leadership, …

Why Ricardo's Theory Of Comparative Advantage Regarding Foreign Trade Doesn't Work In Today's Global Economy, Charles W. Murdock

Faculty Publications & Other Works

The theoretical basis for international trade is Ricardo’s theory of comparative advantage. Paul Samuelson, one of the leading lights in the economics profession in the 20th century, referred to it as one of the most beautiful ideas in economics. Yet, no one seems to have considered its validity in the context of the current global trade environment.

What free-trade advocates have not done is to look at the bases underlying Ricardo’s theory, namely, that capital is loyal to the country of origin and that the value of currencies is responsive to imbalances in trade. This article demonstrates that capital is …

Labor, Trade, And Populism: How Ilo-Wto Collaboration Can Save The Global Economic Order, Sungjoon Cho, Cesar F. Rosado-Marzan

American University Law Review

Populists are trying to take down the global economic order and its institutions. While some of those forces might be fueled by racism, they also play to legitimate social concerns that include massive plant closings and deindustrialization, inadequate skills programs, and lack of decent jobs. Some of these problems also concern the Global South, as workers there face exploitation, unhealthy working conditions, and other social ills caused by global capitalism. In light of these problems, this Article argues that the International Labor Organization (ILO) should design new conventions on lead firm liability and mass layoffs. While other scholars and policymakers …

Development Disasters: Accountability And Remedy In International Development Projects, Kate E. Morrow

American University Law Review

International development projects have a history of creating problems on the ground. Debates about the benefits of top-down development, the need for community buy-in, and the importance of community participation in development have been ongoing and have focused on how to prevent environmental and social harms to local communities. More recently, the conversation has shifted to focus more on the importance of providing remedy for harms, with a focus on development finance institutions (DFIs). DFIs have embraced internal, independent mechanisms to provide a process for accountability when a community suffers harms, but those mechanisms are not externally enforceable. They rely …

The "Poison Pill" In The Usmca: The Erosion Of Wto Principles And Its Implications Under A Us-China Trade War, Gil Lan

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The United States, Canada, and Mexico have ratified a multilateral trade agreement (the "USMCA") that contains a highly unusual provision. This provision (referred to as the 'Poison Pill") is intended to deter the signatories from entering into a free trade agreement (FTA) with any "non-market country." The Poison Pill was introduced by the United States in the wake of the US-China trade war and was most likely directed at deterring Canada from entering into an FTA with China.

This Article argues that the Poison Pill is functionally an expulsion clause (as opposed to a withdrawal clause) which violates the USMCA …

Are Data Privacy Laws Trade Barriers?, Margot Kaminski

Publications

No abstract provided.

Taming America's Sugar Rush: A Traffic-Light Label Approach, Alexia Brunet Marks

Publications

Excess added sugar negatively impacts health and can lead to a litany of problems, such as diet-related chronic diseases, e.g., diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and obesity, costing Americans millions in rising medical bills each year. Even more, new studies reveal that individuals with these underlying chronic diseases are at a higher risk of complications from COVID-19 and other viruses compared to those who are deemed healthy. And yet added sugars are difficult to avoid because unlike naturally occurring sugars found in fruits, vegetables, and milk, these sweeteners are added during food processing and preparation.

The problem is that while consumers …

Traditional Knowledge In Taiwan: A Call For Greater Participation Of Indigenous Peoples In The Global Intellectual Property Marketplace, James M. Cooper

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article explores the plight of the Aborigines of Taiwan and the legal protections that exist for their Traditional Knowledge. While Taiwan continues to face international isolation with a diminished number of states recognizing the Republic of China as the seat of China, the island's government has taken limited steps to recognize language, cultural, and economic rights of its Indigenous peoples. International law has not been helpful in protecting Traditional Knowledge, but Taiwan could use its vast economic resources and positive track record in protecting some of these rights to further its goals of international recognition. This Article details the …

Reciprocity In China-Us Judgments Recognition, William S. Dodge, Wenliang Zhang

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The conventional wisdom is that China and the United States do not recognize each other's court judgments. But this is changing. A US court first recognized a Chinese judgment in 2009, and a Chinese court first reciprocated in 2017. This Article provides an overview of the enforcement of US judgments in China and Chinese judgments in the United States, noting the similarities and differences in the two countries' systems. In China, rules for the enforcement of foreign judgments are established at the national level and require reciprocity. In the United States, rules for the enforcement of foreign judgments are established …

Fintech And International Financial Regulation, Yesha Yadav

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article shows that Fintech exacerbates the difficulties of standard setting in international financial regulation. Earlier work introduced the "Innovation Trilemma" (the Trilemma). When seeking to balance the goals of achieving market integrity and innovation through clear and simple rulemaking, regulators can--at best--achieve only two out of these three objectives. Fintech's unique characteristics--a reliance on automation and artificial intelligence, novel types of big data, as well as the use of disintermediating financial supply chains comprising a mix of traditional firms as well as technology specialists and newcomers--complicates the application of the Trilemma. Rulemaking struggles to achieve needed clarity where innovative …

Trade's Security Exceptionalism, Kathleen Claussen

Articles

At the core of U.S. trade law is an under-studied structural dichotomy. On the one hand, well-established statutory authorities enable the President to eliminate trade barriers through negotiations with U.S. trading partners. On the other hand, different, lesser-known authorities allow the President to erect trade barriers on an exceptional basis where necessary for U.S. economic security. Rather than thinking of free trade as a source of or tool for economic security as political theorists long have, our law codifies these authorities as though they are in contrast to one another-allowing departures from the free trade norm when security so demands. …

Fair Use, The Internet Age, And Rulifying The Blogosphere, Michael Goodyear

Articles & Chapters

The fair use analysis in copyright law is, at present, a confusing and sometimes contradictory entanglement of four factors whose outcome is not guaranteed until it comes before a court ex post. Despite the four factors being listed as clearly delineated points in § 107, in reality, these factors have substantial overlap and courts have provided contradictory rulings even in the same circuit. This article builds on the earlier suggestions of Niva Elkin-Koren and Orit Fischman-Afori in suggesting rulification of fair use in specific creative contexts to better distinguish the legal standards for fair use for the population at large. …

Competition Between State Courts And Private Tribunals, Horst Eidenmüller

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

In this essay, I investigate the competition between state courts and private tribunals for dispute resolution. I distinguish between different market segments: business to business ("B2B") and business to consumer ("B2C") transactions and, in each case, small-, mediumand high-stakes disputes. The analysis is informed by a survey of the dispute resolution preferences of "case placers" carried out in 2015. I find that competition between state courts and arbitral tribunals is currently most intense with respect to high-stakes B2B disputes. A significant portion of the total dispute resolution volume in this market segment goes to arbitration. If parties decide to arbitrate, …

Diversity Of Shareholder Stewardship In Asia: Faux Convergence, Gen Goto, Alan K. Koh, Dan W. Puchniak

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Since the UK adopted the world's first stewardship code in 2010, stewardship codes have proliferated across Asia. Given the UK Code's prominence, it is tempting to assume that every other stewardship code performs the same function as the UK Code. This assumption belies the truth: all these codes--regardless of whether they have in fact drawn inspiration from the UK Code--have taken different trajectories due to each adopting its jurisdiction's distinctive institutional and legal context.

Using empirical evidence and in-depth case studies of stewardship in Japan and Singapore, this Article reveals how any reception of United Kingdom-style stewardship concepts is only …

International Investment Law And Noneconomic Issues, Barnali Choudhury

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Arbitral tribunals have misconstrued the purpose of international investment agreements (IIAs) by failing to factor in the development aspect of these agreements into their analysis. IIAs were constituted to protect foreign investment in order to promote economic development. However, arbitral tribunals have tended to focus mainly on the investor protection elements of IIAs, leading to impingements on human rights and the environment and leaving IIAs as a threat to sustainable development.

Drawing from all publicly available investment awards, a review of these awards found fifty-six awards in which human rights and environmental issues were implicated in investment disputes. The review …

Unintended Consequences For Reversing Rapprochement: Is The Us Government Liable For A Loss Of Us Property In Cuba?, David Kolansky

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In 2014, the United States announced a historic reopening of ties with Cuba. This effort at rapprochement included restoring diplomatic relations and easing regulatory restrictions to facilitate greater business, trade, travel, and communication between the two nations. However, the US government's decision in 2017 to reverse course and reinstate the economic embargo against Cuba could result in significant legal and financial consequences for both US claimants who hold property in Cuba and the US government. One issue that arises is whether US corporations and individuals, who invested in property in Cuba following the Obama-era easing of restrictions, have a constitutional …

Data Imperialism: The Gdpr's Disastrous Impact On Africa's E-Commerce Markets, Cara Mannion

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The European Union (EU) recently passed the General Data Protection Regulation--a sweeping regulatory framework that sets a new global standard for the collection, storage, and use of personal data. To ensure far-reaching compliance with the GDPR, the EU has adopted a strict take-it-or-leave-it approach--countries that wish to engage with digital users in the EU must either comply with the GDPR's expansive data obligations or risk losing access to the world's largest trading block.

This presents significant obstacles for several African nations. Notably, no African country currently has domestic laws that comply with the GDPR. Even if they did, several African …

Algorithmic Speech And Freedom Of Expression, Alan Sears

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Algorithms have become increasingly common, and with this development, so have algorithms that approximate human speech. This has introduced new issues with which courts and legislators will have to grapple. Courts in the United States have found that search engine results are a form of speech that is protected by the Constitution, and cases in Europe concerning liability for autocomplete suggestions have led to varied results. Beyond these instances, insight into how courts handle algorithmic speech are few and far between.

By focusing on three categories of algorithmic speech, defined as curated production, interactive/responsive production, and semi-autonomous production, this Article …

Interpretative Challenges Of 28 U.S.C. § 1782 In The Aftermath Of Intel Corp. V. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Gabriela B. Clark

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The rise of globalization and the normalization of transnational commercial agreements motivated the United States to make commitments that seek to facilitate the resolution of international litigation and dispute resolution processes. One of the byproducts of the United States' commitment to international cooperation is 28 U.S.C.§ 1782, a statute that opens American courts to foreign parties seeking discovery for use in foreign proceedings. Continuous amendments to this statute, paired with a Supreme Court decision that provided an overly vague, unworkable balancing test, gave free rein to lower courts' discretionary powers, ultimately resulting in a myriad of conflicting decisions. This Note …

Nations And Markets, Harlan G. Cohen

Scholarly Works

Economics and security seem increasingly intertwined. Citing national security, states subject foreign investments to new scrutiny, even unwinding mergers like the purchase of Grindr or the creation of TikTok. The provision of 5G has become a diplomatic battleground – Huawei at its center. Meanwhile, states invoke national security to excuse trade wars. The U.S. invoked the GATT national security exception to impose steel and aluminum tariffs, threatening more on automotive parts. Russia invoked that provision to justify its blockade of Ukraine, as did Saudi Arabia and the UAE to excuse theirs of Qatar. And with the spread of COVID-19, states …

Theorizing Developmental Regionalism In Narratives Of African Regional Trade Agreements (Rtas), Olabisi D. Akinkugbe

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

There is a gap in the legal scholarship on African regional trade agreements (RTAs) that links law and development to narratives of developmental regionalism. This article addresses the gap by making the case for an explicit linking of Law and Development scholarship and Developmental Regionalism in African RTAs.

First, the article argues that the cross- pollination of the fields provides an opportunity for a more rigorous understanding of developmental regionalism in African RTAs. Second, the article that developmental regionalism as an analytical tool responds to and encapsulates the multidimensional character of African RTAs. Third, the article argues for a more …

Africa’S Participation In International Economic Law In The 21st Century: An Introduction, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Ohio Omiunu, Amaka Vanni, Regis Y. Simo, Luwam Dirar

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This is the introduction to the Manchester Journal of International Economic Law Symposium Issue based on selected papers presented at the Fourth Biennial Conference of the African International Economic Law Network at Strathmore Law School, Nairobi, Kenya in July 2019. The introduction also reflects on four important spaces for the consolidation of the scholarship, teaching and research, practice and policy relating to international economic law in Africa.

Doing Development Differently: Reorienting Sino-African Trade And Investment Relations After The Pandemic, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Clair Gammage

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article explores the evolutive nature of Sino-African relations and questions how Chinese interventions may influence Africa’s development stories in a post-Covid world. We examine whether the crisis could serve as a catalyst for reorienting the strategic partnership between China and Africa away from debt diplomacy towards genuine partnership or a breaking apart of the long-standing relationship. This article presents three narratives to illustrate how the future direction of Sino-African relations may change and how this might enable Africa to ‘do development differently’.

Dispute Settlement Under The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement: A Preliminary Assessment, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) will add a new dispute settlement system to the plethora of judicial mechanisms designed to resolve trade disputes in Africa. Against the discontent of Member States and limited impact the existing highly legalized trade dispute settlement mechanisms have had on regional economic integration in Africa, this paper undertakes a preliminary assessment of the AfCFTA Dispute Settlement Mechanism (DSM). In particular, the paper situates the AfCFTA-DSM in the overall discontent and unsupportive practices of African States with highly legalized dispute settlement systems and similar WTO-Styled DSMs among other shortcomings. Notwithstanding the transplantation of …

Covid-19 And South-South Trade & Investment Cooperation: Three Emerging Narratives, Clair Gammage, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the frailties of economic relations across different aspects of the globalized network. From the national, through the sub-regional, to the regional to the international levels, questions have arisen regarding the seemingly interconnected, yet fractured socio-economic relationships in our modern societies. In this essay we shall focus on the trade and investment dimension of South-South relations that have been affected by the pandemic. In doing so, we shall reveal the (often overlooked or taken for granted) linkages with race in South-South relations. We identify the way(s) in which the Covid-19 pandemic has made obvious the latent …

Symposium Introduction: Teaching And Researching International Law – Global Perspectives, James Thuo Gathii, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Nthope Mapefane, Titilayo Adebola, Ohio Omiunu

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Welcome to the Teaching and Researching International Law – Global Perspectives Symposium. This series of blog posts gathers perspectives from international law teachers, researchers and students from different regions and all stages of their careers and legal education, to reflect together on common challenges and imagined futures of our profession. This Symposium is held in a moment of great uncertainty – but also of possibility: the Critical Pedagogy Symposium recently held on Opinio Juris offered thought-provoking commentary from across the globe on critical international pedagogy and the virtual space, while the forthcoming TWAILR series on Critique and the Canon promises …

Symposium Introduction: Vulnerabilities In The Trade And Investment Regimes In The Age Of Covid-19, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Clair Gammage

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This Symposium is one of the follow-up publications to the Afronomicslaw.org Webinar III on “Vulnerability in the Trade and Investment Regime in the Age of COVID-19”

‘Vulnerability’ in trade and investment regimes is not a new phenomenon. Nor, is the concept of ‘crisis’. While IEL scholarship has acknowledged some of the way(s) in which the formalisation of international legal rules in trade and investment can act like a ‘straightjacket’ on global south states, sustaining and creating forms of dependencies that are difficult to escape, there is a notable lack of meaningful engagement with the contours and manifestations of concepts like …

The Footprint Of The Chinese Petro-Dragon: The Future Of Investment Law In Transboundary Resources, Guillermo J. Garcia Sanchez

Faculty Scholarship

Chinese offshore investments in the oil and gas sector around the world are on the rise. Like dragons roaming the seas trying to dominate the tides, Chinese state-owned companies are particularly eager to bid for oil fields in maritime borderlines. The article tells the story of how Chinese state-owned companies are over paying for oil on the US-Mexico boundary to gather experience on how China’s global competitors handle resource development conflicts. My argument is that Chinese participation in transboundary field development fits within a long-term strategy to master international legal regimes. The presence of these petro-dragons in borderlines is an …

The Perils Of Pandemic Exceptionalism, Julian Arato, Kathleen Claussen, J. Benton Heath

Articles

In response to the pandemic, most states have enacted special measures to protect national economies and public health. Many of these measures would likely violate trade and investment disciplines unless they qualify for one of several exceptions. This Essay examines the structural implications of widespread anticipated defenses premised on the idea of “exceptionalism.” It argues that the pandemic reveals the structural weakness of the exceptions-oriented paradigm of justification in international economic law.

Misaligned Lawmaking, Timothy Meyer

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Article makes three contributions. First, it introduces the Misalignment Thesis in the context of U.S. trade policy. The Misalignment Thesis is a descriptive claim about how the structure of a legislative bargain influences the long-term stability and effectiveness of that bargain. Second, the Article introduces the normative corollary to the Misalignment Thesis: if political stability hinges on respecting the legislative bargain, interdependent policies should be subject to renegotiation on the same timeline and implementation on the same terms. In light of this prescription, I offer three concrete proposals for aligning trade liberalization and trade adjustment assistance in order to …