International Trade Law Commons^™

Reforming Shareholder Claims In Isds, Julian Arato, Kathleen Claussen, Jaemin Lee, Giovanni Zarra

Articles

ISDS stands alone in empowering shareholders to bring claims for reflective loss (SRL) – meaning claims over harms allegedly inflicted upon the company, but which somehow affect share value. National systems of corporate law and public international law regimes generally bar SRL claims for strong policy reasons bearing on the efficiency and fairness of the corporate form. Though not necessitated by treaty text, nor beneficial in policy terms, ISDS tribunals nevertheless allow shareholders broad and regular access to seek relief for reflective loss. The availability of SRL claims in ISDS ultimately harms States and investors alike, imposing surprise ex post …

Clean Vehicles Tax Credits Under The Us Inflation Reduction Act: Friend-Shoring Takes Centre Stage In Us Policy, J. Anthony Vanduzer

Indian Journal of International Economic Law

The international market has recently faced significant disruptions owing to major geo-political events such as the Covid-19 Pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine War, resulting in unreliable and erratic global supply chains. In a bid to create and secure more sustainable supply networks, countries have adopted ‘friend-shoring’ policies, encouraging their enterprises to source supplies from friendly or allied nations. While the primary objective of these policies is to stabilize global supply chains, these initiatives also stem from a desire to reduce reliance on countries that pose a threat to the geopolitical order.

Although tailored as a market-based strategy, these friend- shoring policies, …

The Appellate Body Crisis: Consent Within The Dispute Settlement Body Of The World Trade Organisation, Diana María Beltrán-Vargas, Mariana Puentes-Jaramillo, Pablo Andrés Aponte-González, Maria Alexandra Ortíz-Cabrera

Indian Journal of International Economic Law

No abstract provided.

International Investment Agreements And Regulation Of Utilisation Of Water Resources In Africa, Dominic Npoanlari Dagbanja

Indian Journal of International Economic Law

African constitutions and domestic water legislation provide for the human right to clean and safe drinking water. This right is also sourced from international human rights treaties and declarations to which African states are parties or signatories. Both municipal law and public international law impose the duties of protection and fulfilment of the right to safe drinking water on states. Domestic water laws and regulations require African states to regulate and manage the utilisation of water resources including by approving the grant of rights, concessions, or contracts in respect of the exploitation of water resources. These laws also require the …

Unilaterally Altering The Bargain: Trips, Section 107a, And The Regulatory Review Exception Under Indian Patent Law, Eashan Ghosh, Afzal B. Khan

Indian Journal of International Economic Law

In 2003, Section 107A of the Patents Act wrote a regulatory review exception into Indian law. Its beholden purpose is to enable patent-protected pharmaceutical products to be brought to Indian markets quicker and in large numbers. Emboldened by a WTO decision brake-testing a similar Canadian statute, Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers have consistently claimed Section 107A benefits from domestic courts. Lately, the economic trail of these benefits has grown to implicate entities abroad. Pushback to this trend from patentees has duly arrived. It has culminated in a stack of Delhi High Court decisions in Bayer v. Union of India. Bayer writes three …

Book Review: Pasha L. Hsieh, New Asian Regionalism In International Economic Law, Cambridge University Press 2022, Junji Nakagawa

Indian Journal of International Economic Law

No abstract provided.

Regulating Subsidies Contributing To Overcapacity And Overfishing: How India Proposes To Align Trade Policy With Sustainable Fisheries, Pallavi Arora, Ketakee Gondane, Mumrita Gaurdwaj

Indian Journal of International Economic Law

In light of the growing impetus to integrate sustainability issues into the World Trade Organisation (WTO), facilitating coordination between the trade and sustainability regimes has taken centre stage. Managing regime interaction was integral to negotiating the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies (AFS), the WTO’s first sustainability agreement. As the outstanding element of the AFS, the overcapacity and overfishing (OCOF) pillar also aims to foster harmony between the principles and concepts of international environmental law, particularly fisheries law and international trade law. Notable in this regard are the principles of sustainable development and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities. Also relevant …

Reforming World Bank Dispute Resolution: Icsid In Context, Susan Franck

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

During a tumultuous moment in history with shifts in power and politics, international dispute settlement stands at a crossroads. In theory, international dispute settlement should not institutionalize abuses of power, rely upon a monolithic one-size-fits-all model, or be a waste of resources, which will inevitably generate stakeholder dissatisfaction. Rather, dispute resolution should reflect both a commitment to the rule of law and equal treatment that sustains nuanced, fair, and just procedures most likely to provide results of substantive quality. Against this backdrop and with the major reforms concluded in July 2022, this article explores the reality of dispute resolution at …

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 …

Securing Patent Law, Charles Duan

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

A vigorous conversation about intellectual property rights and national security has largely focused on the defense role of those rights, as tools for responding to acts of foreign infringement. But intellectual property, and patents in particular, also play an arguably more important offense role. Foreign competitor nations can obtain and assert U.S. patents against U.S. firms and creators. Use of patents as an offense strategy can be strategically coordinated to stymie domestic innovation and technological progress. This Essay considers current and possible future practices of patent exploitation in this offense setting, with a particular focus on China given the nature …

Gender Mainstreaming In Trade Agreements: "A Potemkin Façade"?, Katrin Kuhlmann, Amrita Bahri

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The distributional outcomes of trade agreements have historically been uneven, creating both “losers” as well as “winners” and benefitting certain stakeholders while leaving others without benefits or even with negative repercussions. In particular, distributional outcomes can vary between women and men, since they play different roles in society, markets, and economies, and they enjoy different opportunities as well. At times, and sometimes by their very nature, trade agreements can restrict opportunities for women and further increase the gender divide. But in recent years, there has been a drastic upsurge in the number of countries that are incorporating commitments on gender …

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 …

International Investment Law In The Shadow Of Populism: Between Redomestication And Liberalism Re‐Embedded, Alvaro Santos

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The international investment regime is in crisis, nowhere more so than in regard to the investor–state dispute settlement system. While several developing countries have been critical of the system for some time, rich countries like the US and EU states—once the principal promoters of this regime—are now acknowledging problems and advancing reforms. This change of position has been fueled by the mobilization of civil society and the emergence of domestic populist movements on both the right and the left, reflecting widespread discontent with the past three decades of neoliberal globalization and its effects on job losses, lower wages, and increasing …

A New Era At The Court Of International Trade: Endemic, Executive Orders, And Enforcement, Timothy Meyer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Inspection Panel And International Law, Daniel D. Bradlow

Perspectives

This essay argues that the creation of the Inspection Panel (Panel) was an important international legal development. It was the first time that an international organization established a mechanism that enabled those communities and individuals who claimed they had been harmed by the decisions and actions of the international organization to hold the organization accountable. The creation of the Panel also promoted the role of non-state actors in making the soft international law that is applicable to the international financing of development projects. This essay will discuss each of these developments before drawing some conclusions about the Panel and international …

The Promise Of Collaborative Problem Solving In Enhancing Iam Effectiveness, Gina Barbieri

Perspectives

This essay analyses the effectiveness of collaborative problem-solving through mediation within accountability mechanisms, and considers ways in which western mediation principles should be enhanced to ensure fair outcomes given the power imbalance at play in development disputes. It also considers whether there is any scope to use problem solving principles to address questions of compliance, arguing for consideration of a hybrid approach to bolster tools available to IAMs, and so strengthen outcomes for communities.

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 …

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 …