International Trade Law Commons^™

Resilient Dispute Resolution Systems For International Energy Conflicts, Guillermo J. Garcia Sanchez

Faculty Scholarship

Energy-related conflicts are on the rise, spanning diverse issues such as the impacts of rare mineral mining on local communities, the impacts of sanctions on energy investments due to the Russia-Ukraine war, and the impacts of expanded subsidies on the electric vehicle and solar panel industries. Increasingly, companies, communities, and governments are clashing over the challenges of pursuing disparate and sometimes competing energy policies. This Article argues that dispute resolution mechanisms in the energy investment sector must be fundamentally rethought. Traditional semi-adjudicatory models, which focus on winners and losers, fail to accommodate the complex and multifaceted nature of contemporary energy …

Fisc Opinion Digest 2022 - 2025, Alejandra Gutierrez

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

This digest summarizes selected opinions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review (FISC-R) regarding Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). It covers the FISC’s annual review of intelligence agencies’ Section 702 certifications and the FISC and FISC-R’s opinions related to the statutory definition of Electronic Communications Service Providers (ECSPs). Publicly available opinions are posted on the FISC website, and further resources are available through the Intel.gov IC on the Record Database, a website of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI).

Corporate Responsibility In Business Dealings With War Criminals, Michael "Mac" Richards

Human Rights Brief

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a decades-long conflict has displaced over fourteen million people, killed over six million, and led to the highest rates of sexual violence among any other nation in the world. The DRC is the source of some of the most valuable resources used in the production of consumer electronics: gold, copper, and cobalt. Militia groups, such as Movement Du 23 Mars (M23) and the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), are taking advantage of the nation’s vast mineral reserves by seizing control of local mining operations and exporting the minerals through neighboring Rwanda. These minerals …

Renewed Injustice: Domestic Investors And The Energy Transition, Fernando Dias Simões

American University International Law Review

The Spanish renewable energy “saga” offers a graphic account of the structural biases of international investment law. Like other countries, Spain introduced economic incentives in support of photovoltaic energy, attracting sizable national and foreign investment. When this regime proved too burdensome on public finances, the government changed it drastically. Around 60,000 Spanish investors were affected. When these investors sought justice, they faced a different fate from their foreign counterparts. While foreign investors had the option to submit their claims to international arbitral tribunals, domestic investors were limited to national courts.

The outcome was a textbook example of unequal treatment of …

Kedudukan Hukum Eks-Kreditor Pasca Debt To Equity Swap Yang Dihomologasi Dalam Pkpu Kedua Dan Kepailitan Debitor Akibat Pembatalan Perdamaian, Reza Rahmawati

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Debt to Equity Swap (DES) under a composition plan in Suspension of Debt Payment Obligations (PKPU) proceedings constitutes a restructuring mechanism that transforms the legal status of a Creditor into that of a shareholder upon homologation. Legal issues arise when The Debtor subsequently enters a Second PKPU due to newly incurred debts or is declared bankrupt following the annulment of the composition, while Law No. 37 of 2004 on Bankruptcy and Suspension of Debt Payment does not expressly regulate the legal consequences of a DES under such circumstances. This normative legal research aims to analyze the legal standing and legal …

The Foreign Commerce Power, Kathleen Claussen, Timothy Meyer

Faculty Scholarship

This Article is the first to scrutinize presidential trade authority under the Constitution. The Constitution grants the President no independent power to regulate foreign commerce. That conclusion, while apparent from a straightforward reading of Articles I and II, stands in stark contrast to executive conduct of U.S. trade policy in recent years. This Article traces the roots of this constitutional distortion to a confluence of doctrinal drift and academic oversight. Courts and commentators have increasingly relied on an expansive conception of executive power grounded in a perceived general foreign affairs authority. In doing so, they have blurred the line between …

Tinjauan Frasa “Setiap Orang” Dalam Pasal 3 Ayat (1) Peraturan Pemerintah Nomor 56 Tahun 2021 Tentang Pengelolaan Royalti Hak Cipta Lagu Dan/Atau Musik, Fajar Hidayansyah Ilham, Luna Dezeana Ticoalu

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Copyright is one form of legal protection for intellectual works, occupying an important position within the intellectual property law system. The Copyright Law explicitly grants exclusive rights to creators, encompassing both moral rights and economic rights. Economic rights, as stipulated in Article 9 paragraph (1), allow creators to obtain economic benefits from their works, ranging from publication, reproduction, distribution, performance, to communication to the public. This provision shows that creators hold a primary position as legal subjects entitled to protection, while also serving as central actors in the creative industry ecosystem. In practice, the mechanism for copyright protection requires implementing …

Third Tri-National Meeting On Labour Rights - Report Of Recommendations For Upcoming Review Of The Cusma (Usmca, T-Mec), Mark Rowlinson, Sara Slinn

Conference Papers

The CUSMA-USMCA-T-MEC (CUSMA) Labour Chapter and its Facility-Specific Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) are key areas of focus in the ongoing review of CUSMA approaches. The third Tri-National Meeting on Labour Rights under CUSMA was held on December 9th and 10th, 2024, at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto. This hybrid meeting brought together knowledgeable academics, organizations, and individuals from the three CUSMA partner countries to evaluate the Labour Chapter, particularly the RRM, and to discuss reform recommendations. This report summarizes the challenges and proposed reforms presented and discussed during this third Tri-National Meeting, building on recommendations from the two previous …

The International Order, International Law, And The Definition Of Security, Harlan Grant Cohen

Michigan Journal of International Law

As economic security has seemingly moved to the center of American and European foreign policy, both the United States and the European Union have broadened their interpretation of international law rules governing security, coercion, and intervention. But these interpretations are not exactly new, echoing developing state interpretations of international law that developed states had long ago seemingly rejected. How are these once moribund interpretations of security, force, and coercion being brought back to life?

This article argues that these interpretative shifts highlight the role of the international order as an interpretative mechanism within international law. Borrowing from the work of …

Fair Use In The Supreme Court: A Peek Behind The Scenes, Jonathan Band

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

Between 1975 and 1994, the Supreme Court considered five cases that involved fair use: Williams & Wilkins v. United States; Sony v. Universal City Studios; Harper & Row v. Nation Enterprises; Stewart v. Abend; and Campbell v. Acuff-Rose. The papers of the Supreme Court Justices that decided these cases show the Court as a profoundly human institution with the Justices often struggling to fashion opinions that could gain the support of a majority. The Justices clearly cared about the copyright merits, but they were also willing to compromise to achieve a certain result. In several …

Revolutionizing The Cross-Border Payment System, Muhui Shi

Michigan Technology Law Review

When you bought your coffee this morning, you probably didn’t notice that many cross-border payments were hidden in the process of shipping beans in Ethiopia to the barista in your neighborhood. Comprising more than ten percent of what U.S. consumers spend, cross-border payments are an essential part of U.S. dollar dominance and commercial competitiveness. Yet, the outdated cross-border payment system—shrinking constantly in reach and struggling with structural changes—is demanding a complete upgrade.

What is the best path forward? Cryptocurrencies? E-money? Stablecoins? Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs)? In this article, I answer the question by uncovering the core needs of the …

Global Supply Chain Resilience In Emerging Technologies: A Case Study Of Bitcoin Mining, Kishanthi Parella, Carla L. Reyes

Scholarly Articles

The United States has put into motion bold plans in critical and emerging technologies to bolster its national and economic security.  For example, the federal government created a national bitcoin strategic reserve and a stockpile of other cryptocurrency; while several states have committed to or are considering similar goals.  However, the security of these reserves is dependent on two types of supply chains within the Bitcoin mining industry: analogue supply chains, relating to the physical components needed for Bitcoin mining, and data supply chains, relating to the complex and layered logistical network of actors that create input into …

Procedural Good Faith In Investment Arbitration—What Is It And What Could It Be?, Meg Kinnear

American University Business Law Review

When I selected the topic of procedural good faith for this lecture, I did not expect it to be as unwieldy as it proved to be. After all, good faith is a fundamental concept for every law student, and it anchors our approach to legal analysis and “thinking like a lawyer.” As counsel, our core belief is that proceedings must be conducted in good faith, and we each have a professional duty to act in good faith in arbitration.

Nonetheless, I am certain that each of you has witnessed conduct during an arbitration—by the opposite party, of course—that struck you …

The Stored Communications Act At 40: Re-Examining Ecs And Rcs In The Age Of Ai, Shanzay Pervaiz

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

Shanzay Pervaiz, Senior Legal Researcher, examines the Stored Communications Act (SCA) almost forty years after its enactment, focusing on how its core definitions of “electronic communication service” (ECS) and “remote computing service” (RCS) play a central role in regulating domestic and global government access to data. The definitions still shape key U.S. authorities such as FISA Section 702, the CLOUD Act, and international instruments governing law enforcement access to data, including the Budapest Convention and the United Nations Convention on Cybercrime. The paper also looks at the legislative history of the SCA, how U.S. courts define ECS and RCS, and …

Combating Forced Labor: Why Trade Laws Work Better, Julia Steggerda-Corey

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

Nearly twenty-eight million people across the globe are coerced into involuntary work or service. This forced labor occurs in virtually every industry and at every stage of supply chains and goods production. Nation-states have sought to address this epidemic for decades through anti-slavery, trade, and human rights laws. These mechanisms have largely failed and forced labor in the supply chain remains an underpin-ning of modern capitalism. To be effective, legal mechanisms must in-centivize businesses to make strategic decisions that bring about an end to forced labor. This Article is the first to analyze the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence …

Transnational Corporate Liability Through The Lens Of Interlegality, Jaye Ellis

Dalhousie Law Journal

Pressure is mounting on courts in Canada, as in other jurisdictions, to address harms generated within global supply chains. These entities have no formal legal personality, so attempts to trace lines of responsibility and liability within them require the development of innovative argumentative strategies. Among the challenges is the integration of a range of sources, including international law, international policy initiatives, and privately constituted standards to promote human and labour rights and environmental protection. Working with the concept of interlegality, I seek to develop approaches for navigating overlapping and intersecting legal orders, and for facilitating interactions among them. Of particular …

Rethinking Transnational Adjudication: The Normative Foundations Of Institutional Design, Sanctions-Related Arbitration Frameworks, And Digital Recognition Systems, Avaskhan Asanaliyev

SJD Dissertations

This dissertation examines how emerging judicial and dispute resolution architectures can sustain cross-border commerce, investment, and enforcement in the post-Soviet space and beyond, at a time of institutional fragility, geopolitical tension, and rapid digitalization. Drawing on the experience of Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, and key global hubs, it argues that institutional innovation in courts, arbitration, and enforcement mechanisms is central to rebuilding credible governance frameworks for international business. It does so through three interconnected studies that together explore the evolution of modern adjudication: first, through the transplantation of a common law judiciary model within a civil law state; second, through the …

Workers’ Empowerment As U.S. Trade Policy, Desiree Leclercq

Scholarly Works

U.S. trade policy stands at an inflection point. The Biden administration’s “worker-centered” trade policy promised to empower foreign workers to improve employment and living standards globally, but it linked its trade assistance to political allies. The Trump administration’s “America First” trade policy promises to use tariffs and isolationism to protect and empower U.S. workers, but it is fostering antagonism rather than cooperation in trade. Both policies, while sharply diverging at the edges, recognize that U.S. trade policy affects employment opportunities in the United States. Both policies also critically overlook the relationship between the treatment of workers in trade partner countries, …

Rethinking Legal Models For Aligning U.S.-African Trade And The Afcfta, Katrin Kuhlmann

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The U.S.-African trade relationship has become increasingly volatile and conditional, with significant implications for supply chains, trade corridors, and regional and global markets. This relationship has historically been based on a unilateral, preferential legal approach through a trade preference programme – the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) – under which individual countries petition for eligibility to receive duty-free treatment. AGOA expired in September 2025 in the midst of U.S. tariffs, but in early 2026 the programme was retroactively reauthorised through December 2026, with further application subject to “modernisation” and alignment with the “America First” policy. While many see reauthorisation …

Between ‘Technology Futures’: How Standards Are Transforming Digital Trade Craig Atkinson Craig Atkinson, Craig Atkinson

Centre for Digital Law

Digital trade relies on technical standards. As information technologies advance, international digital standards make the technologies used in trade – or ‘tradetech’ – more interoperable, scalable, and secure.

A wide range of tradetech use cases depend on digital standards, including those for document formats, electronic signatures, digital identity, and cybersecurity. They also encompass system specifications for cross-border payments, electronic transferable records (ETRs), transportation/logistics, trade facilitation, and financial compliance.

Most digital standards are voluntary and are produced by international Standards Development Organisations (SDOs) alongside a growing number of industry-led consortia.

The Institutions Of Exceptions: Justification In Trade And Investment Treaties, Julian Arato

Michigan Journal of International Law

International economic law binds states in the interest of liberalizing markets, including in cross-border trade in goods and services (trade) and capital (investment). The treaty regimes for both trade and investment do this by disciplining states through legal rules, while preserving a modicum of governmental authority over domestic policy. The preservation of policy space in these regimes usually involves a process of exceptions-based justification – through formal exceptions clauses in most trade treaties and some investment agreements, and also through informal exceptions-style reasoning by adjudicators in the investment treaty regime more generally. This “exceptions paradigm” of justification has worked well …

The Protection Of Geographical Indications Under Comparative Lens: Whether Law Artificially Creates Scarcity Of Goods, Domenico Di Micco

FIU Law Review

The economic principles of supply and demand dictate that market prices are contingent on the conditions under which supply and demand converge. Within this theoretical framework, the concepts of scarcity and abundance assume paramount significance. When goods are scarce, prices tend to escalate, while in cases of abundant supply, prices tend to decline. But what factors determine scarcity and abundance? In many cases, scarcity is inherent to the nature of the commodity (for example, diamonds are rarer than common stones). In other cases, such as geographical indications, scarcity is constructed through the legal denomination associated with the commodity, thereby creating …

Geographical Indications For Agricultural Products: Inconsistencies And Conflicts In Europe And The Global Arena, Lorenzo Bairati

FIU Law Review

Food systems are regulated by a global and hybrid legal framework. In fact, while supranational and international sources play an increasingly important role, private regulators are also becoming more and more involved alongside traditional public policy-makers. Within this context, Geographical Indications (GIs) serve as the main tool in the European Union and beyond to protect quality agri-food products.

This Article aims to explore these instruments in depth in order to analyze several critical aspects from the perspective of global governance, i.e., the networked, hybrid, and diffuse legal space that develops through the participation, negotiation, and strategic interaction between public and …

The Making Of Egyptian Cotton: An Alternative Narrative Between Empire And Global Capital, Dina I. Waked

FIU Law Review

Egyptian cotton has become a celebrated brand. Referring to cotton as “Egyptian” signals a certain quality, luxury, and durability. Egyptian cotton has, thus, become its own trademark, a signifier of value, and a symbol of national heritage. This image is carefully curated. It is now protected under a licensing scheme of branding and marketing that assures that fraudulently claimed “Egyptian cotton” does not benefit from the added value this geographic location ascribes to it. The Egyptian Cotton Association was thus created 2005 to license and accredit the brand. Part of the curation of the brand image is a historical narrative …

How The Supreme Court’S Inconsistent Approach To Granting Emergency Relief Will Exacerbate, Rather Than Mitigate The Disruption Its Emergency Stay Policy Is Supposed To Address, Harvey L. Reiter

Cardozo Law Review de•novo

The federal government has used the Supreme Court’s emergency or “shadow” docket to great effect this past year, securing stay after stay of lower court rulings that had blocked many of the President’s executive orders. But the Court’s rulings have come, almost invariably, without any explanation of its reasoning. And its opaque and uneven rulings have also come at a potential cost to the Court’s credibility. This Article illustrates the uneven nature of the Court’s rulings by contrasting two lines of cases: (1) the Court’s stays of lower court rulings restoring to their positions FTC, NLRB, EEOC, and MSPB members …

Privatising International (Organizations) Law, Melissa (M.J.) Durkee

Scholarship@WashULaw

This essay explores the increasing role of private commercial actors within international organizations (IOs) and the implications for international law. Once conceived as state-centred institutions, IOs now routinely involve corporations, trade associations, and philanthropic foundations in lawmaking, policy-setting, financing, and implementation. These actors participate through multiple channels: as observers, delegates, stakeholders, funders, and partners. While private involvement has historical precedents, its contemporary scale and formalization mark a significant transformation in global governance. International law, however, offers little guidance on the boundary between public and private authority, leaving legitimacy concerns unresolved. To evaluate privatization, the article identifies two competing logics: a …

Seeing International Organizations In A Shifting Landscape: Law, Practice, And Authority, Melissa (M.J.) Durkee

Scholarship@WashULaw

This book review symposium comes at a moment of visible strain in the postwar legal order. As of this writing, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has described a "rupture" in the rules-based world order, warning that multilateral institutions and the architecture of collective problem-solving are under threat. Notably, Carney issued that warning at the World Economic Forum in Davos, before an audience of "companies and countries." The setting underscores a broader shift in global governance, in which states, firms, and philanthropic actors increasingly occupy shared institutional spaces, unsettling assumptions about law and power at the international level. The books under …

Space Enterprises As International Lawmakers: Nudges, Pledges, And Other Bottom-Up Modalities, Melissa (M.J.) Durkee

Scholarship@WashULaw

Private entities are influencing the development of international space law. Space enterprises need regulatory certainty and consistent standards to attract capital and develop their plans for space. Yet, states have lagged in their capacity to make multilateral international space law in traditional public fora. Private entities have responded to this legal lag by attempting to create, develop, and nudge international space law in commerce-friendly ways. This chapter surveys a variety of modalities by which commercial actors can affect the development of international law, offers several examples of how commercial lawmaking efforts

How International Organizations Regulate Lobbyist Access, Melissa (M.J.) Durkee

Scholarship@WashULaw

This chapter explores how international organizations (IOs) regulate lobbyist access through participation frameworks rather than traditional lobbying laws. While no unified international lobbying regime exists, IOs use rules on NGO 'consultation' and 'engagement' to structure access. These rules, rooted in historical practices like the UN's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) accreditation system, prioritize representativeness and legitimacy over transparency and accountability. As lobbying increasingly targets international forums, concerns about undue influence (the 'lobbying critique') and insufficient stakeholder inclusion (the 'access critique') have driven divergent reforms: some IOs, like the World Health Organization, have adopted stricter controls; others, such as the GAVI …

Dualisme Tujuan Pembebanan Uang Pengganti: Analisis Putusan Angelina Sondakh Di Berbagai Tingkat Peradilan, Valencia Puspa Novandra Ali, Tamsil .

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Studi ini meneliti perbedaan interpretasi dan penerapan hukuman tambahan berupa restitusi (uang pengganti) dalam kasus korupsi melalui analisis komparatif keputusan Angelina Sondakh di pengadilan tingkat pertama, pengadilan banding, pengadilan kasasi, dan pengadilan peninjauan yudisial. Muncul interpretasi ganda antara memandang restitusi sebagai kompensasi atas kerugian keuangan negara dan sebagai mekanisme untuk menyita keuntungan ilegal. Judex facti menolak penerapan restitusi dengan alasan bahwa tidak terjadi kerugian negara dalam kasus suap dan gratifikasi, sementara judex juris di tingkat kasasi menafsirkan restitusi sebagai instrumen pemulihan aset yang ditujukan untuk keuntungan yang diperoleh secara ilegal. Orientasi konseptual yang bertentangan ini menghasilkan perbedaan signifikan dalam penjatuhan …