International Trade Law Commons^™

Draft Treaty Language: Withdrawal Of Consent To Arbitrate And Termination Of International Investment Agreements, Brooke Güven, Lise Johnson

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) is currently working on how to reform international investment treaties, focusing in particular on those treaties’ provisions enabling investors to sue governments in international arbitration. As an observer organization in this process, CCSI has emphasized that in the context of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) reform, it is important to first consider what it is that investment treaties aim to achieve, and only then to consider what form(s) of dispute settlement will best advance those objectives. This means not only looking at reform of the existing ISDS mechanism, but also alternatives to …

Trade Secret Protection In Japan And The United States: Comparison And Recommendations, Thomas Landman

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Trade secret law is a vital, yet often misunderstood, form of intellectual property law. As economic superpowers, both Japan and the United States realize that effective trade secret protection is essential for the prosperity of their domestic economies, and both nations have enacted laws to protect their trade secrets. While both Japan and the United States are signatories to the TRIPS agreement and therefore provide a shared baseline standard of trade secret protection, cultural and systemic differences between the two nations have resulted in differences in the way each nation implements its trade secret laws. This Note traces the history …

Malaysia Historical Salvors Revisited:, John P. Given

Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Human Rights Law And The Investment Treaty Regime, Jesse Coleman, Kaitlin Y. Cordes, Lise Johnson

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In its current form, the international investment treaty regime may stymie the business and human rights agenda in various ways. The regime may incentivize governments to favour the protection of investors over the protection of human rights. Investment treaty standards enforced through investor-state arbitration risk adversely affecting access to justice for project-affected rights holders. More broadly, the regime contributes to a system of global economic governance that elevates and rewards investors’ actions and expectations, irrespective of whether they have adhered to their responsibilities to respect human rights. Without comprehensive reform, investment treaties and investor-state arbitration will continue to interfere with …

Severance By Unilateral Declaration: Lessons From Singapore, Alvin W. L. See

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Thisarticle examines, in the context of Singapore law, unilateral declaration as amode of severing a joint tenancy. In particular, it considers if and in what exceptionalcircumstances should severance by unilateral declaration be allowed in equitynotwithstanding the lack of registration, the effect of such an unregisteredseverance with regards to third parties, as well as how the different modes ofseverance interact with one another.

China’S Free Trade Agreement Approach To Intellectual Property: The Future Of China’S Rules Under The Belt And Road Initiative [In Chinese], Heng Wang, Zhenyu Xiao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Intellectual property rules have played an increasingly important role in international trade. Due to the problem in multilateral negotiations, free trade agreements (FTAs) of the US and EU may profoundly shape the future of world intellectual property law. The article analyses the following questions: what are the Chinese, US and EU approach to intellectual property under FTAs? Will China develop its own FTA model on intellectual property? On the one hand, the US and EU have developed their FTA model and is featured with WTO-plus obligations and stringent enforcement. They largely converge despite differences in areas such as geographical indications. …

The Future Of Deep Free Trade Agreements: The Convergence Of Tpp (And Cptpp) And Ceta?, Heng Wang

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Focusing on Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) as deep free trade agreements (FTAs) that concentrate on regulatory disciplines, this article examines a key question concerning the future of deep FTAs: do deep FTAs converge and, if so, why? It argues that, first, deep FTAs converge in their approach to trade and investment in two crucial respects: regulatory disciplines and dispute settlement. CPTPP narrows its gap with CETA through suspending rules in arguably most controversial aspects of TPP (i.e. intellectual property and investor-state dispute settlement [ISDS]). Differences emerge …

The Battle Of The Powers: Newly Obtained Benefits From The Revitilised Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, Scott Halsted

Master's Projects and Capstones

The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement would have been the most sizeable free trade agreement in history. The agreement was set up by the Obama administration as an economic benefactor plus geopolitical tool to maintain the balance of power in the Asia Pacific region, rivaling the power of China. However, numerous politicians within the Trump administration, plus multiple political opposers including Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders, were major advocates for the U.S. removal after realistically adjusted estimates of the TPP showed economic benefits not equating to original estimates. However, the United States withdrawal raises significant successes that can be …

Ccsi Submits Written Views To Us Department Of State Regarding Uncitral’S Working Group Iii, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In connection with the US Department of State’s Annual Advisory Committee on Private International law meeting in May 2019, CCSI submitted written views regarding UNCITRAL’s Working Group III on ISDS reform. CCSI’s comments highlighted specific areas of CCSI’s research as it relates to the US Government and its work within the Working Group. Specifically, US investment treaty negotiating objectives specify that covered foreign investors in the United States should not be accorded greater substantive rights than domestic investors. CCSI highlights the ways in which greater procedural rights afforded under investment treaties to foreign investors in practice result in greater substantive …

Fighting Fire With Fire: A Repeat Violator Policy For The Wto, Michael Goodyear

Articles & Chapters

The Trump presidency and other reactionary conservative governments present an immensely powerful danger to the World Trade Organization ("WTO"). The WTO is largely built on Members' willingness to comply with its rules, and the current Dispute Settlement Understanding ("DSU") is too weak to deter an avowed enemy of the WTO such as President Trump. This poor enforcement system particularly hurts developing countries, which lack the power under the DSU to effectively deter economic giants like the United States. The recent Doha Round was supposed to create a more effective enforcement mechanism under the DSU, but it fell apart before any …

Data First, Tax Next: How Fiji’S Technology Can Improve New Zealand’S 'Netflix Tax' (Part 2), Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

This is the second in a four-part series addressing VAT/GST avoidance schemes involving remote sales of services. These schemes have been growing in importance. The IMF reports that the services component of cross-border trade has been on the rise for fifty-years or more, making the Internet a serious threat to revenue. Technology has accelerated tax avoidance.

Statutory draftsmen in New Zealand have looked at this problem directly with what has been called the Netflix Tax. Technologist in Fiji have been struggling with similar problems and have developed technology-based security systems that would seem to address remote sales of services more …

How The United States Stopped Being A Pirate Nation And Learned To Love International Copyright, John A. Rothchild

Pace Law Review

From the time of the first federal copyright law in 1790 until enactment of the International Copyright Act in 1891, U.S. copyright law did not apply to works by authors who were not citizens or residents of the United States. U.S. publishers took advantage of this lacuna in the law, and the demand among American readers for books by popular British authors, by reprinting the books of these authors without their authorization and without paying a negotiated royalty to them.

This Article tells the story of how proponents of extending copyright protections to foreign authors—called international copyright—finally succeeded after more …

Data First, Tax Next: How Fiji’S Technology Can Improve New Zealand’S 'Netflix Tax' (Part 1), Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Over the past decade the VAT in the South Pacific has been changing. More change is coming. Change is needed in both the larger economies (Australia and New Zealand) and the smaller ones (the Pacific Island Countries or PICs). The changes we see currently are propelled by cross-border remote sales of services and low-value goods.

The government response in the South Pacific is not uniform. The larger economies have relied on statutory remedies; the smaller economies are turning to technology. The larger economies are crafting complex, extra-territorial compliance provisions targeting remote sellers. The smaller economies are mandating secure digital invoices, …

Can Bad Law Do Good? A Retrospective On Conflict Minerals Regulation, Karen E. Woody

Maryland Law Review

Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (“Dodd-Frank”) created a novel approach to corporate social responsibility (“CSR”) in supply chains by requiring public companies to disclose the presence of conflict minerals in their products. Dodd-Frank, as a whole, has faced a barrage of criticism since its passage, and Section 1502 was not immune from intense critical backlash. As I argued in prior scholarship and congressional testimony, Section 1502 was ill-conceived in substance and form. Its application resulted in the improper use of securities laws to the detriment of its laudable public international law …

Trade And The Separation Of Powers, Timothy Meyer, Ganesh Sitaraman

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

There are two paradigms through which to view trade law and policy within the American constitutional system. One paradigm sees trade law and policy as quintessentially about domestic economic policy. Institutionally, under the domestic economics paradigm, trade law falls within the province of Congress, which has legion Article I authorities over commercial matters. The second paradigm sees trade law as fundamentally about America’s relationship with foreign countries. Institutionally, under the foreign affairs paradigm, trade law is the province of the President, who speaks for the United States in foreign affairs. While both paradigms have operated throughout American history, the domestic …

Another Hague Judgements Convention? Bucking The Past To Provide For The Future, Louise Ellen Teitz

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Divestasi Pt. Freeport Indonesia, Erni Yoesr Yoesry

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Indonesia’s natural resources potential especially in mining sector make it becomes hunted by foreign investor, one of them is PT. Freeport Indonesia. Freeport operates in Indonesia under a Contract of Work (KK) which was signed in 1967. In this contract of work, all management and operational matters are handed over to miners. The state has no control over the operation of the company. The State would only receive royalties of the amount that has been determined in contract of work. Mining companies that want to export processed minerals (concentrates) ought to relinquish the status of contract of work into a …

Explaining China's Legal Flexibility: History And The Institutional Imperative, Justin W. Evans

Pace International Law Review

China’s legal system appears to harbor a major tension, or even a paradox. Certainty in law facilitates economic progress, which most observers agree the Communist Party requires to maintain its power—yet the Party has opted for a flexible legal system that often impedes predictability. Prior studies explain China’s legal system as a product of certain constraints and as an expedient that allows for policy adjustments. These factors undoubtedly are at work but do not fully explain the rationale for a legal design seemingly at odds with the Party’s economic goals. To obtain a fuller view, it is necessary to consult …

The Roots And Fruits Of Good Faith In Domestic Court Practice, Thomas Neumann

Pace International Law Review

Good faith—most lawyers have an opinion on these two words. While the notion of good faith may play specific roles at domestic and regional levels, it remains an elusive siren at the international level. The concept was subject to controversy at the birth of the 1980 United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) and has been debated by scholars ever since. Considering that the Convention has now been in force for over thirty years, it is agreed that time is ripe for “a call to arms for further research into a uniform standard of good …

International Criminal Responsibility In Kosovo: Establishment Of The International Criminal Court – De Lege Lata, De Lege Ferenda, Mujë Ukaj, Qendresa Jasharaj

International Journal on Responsibility

The Special Court of Kosovo (Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor's Office) with headquarters in The Hague, is one of the biggest problems Kosovo faced since the declaration of independence. This topic has been treated very little in scientific terms, while in the media it is written very much, calling it harmful to Kosovo, and even had opinions that it is a racist court since the same will initially only judge the KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) members for alleged war crimes in Kosovo. The Special Court of Kosovo is presented as a sui generis case in the practice of international …