In noting that the actions of entities other than states in the economic arena can and often do have a profound effect on human rights, this book poses the question as to how international human rights law can and should address that situation. This book takes three very different categories of international actor - the World Trade Organization, the international financial institutions (World Bank and IMF) and multinational enterprises - and analyses the interaction of each category with human rights, in each case analysing the interaction of the different fields of law and seeking to identify a role for international human rights law.

Adam McBeth concludes that each of the selected international economic actors can and should be considered to operate within a holistic system of international law, including human rights obligations, but that changes in the operations and the accountability mechanisms for each actor are necessary for the practical implementation of that approach.

While written from a human rights perspective, the underlying theme of the book is one of engagement and harmonisation rather than condemnation. It provides valuable insight for those who approach this topic from a background of international trade law, commercial law or general international law, just as much as those who have a human rights background. International Economic Actors and Human Rights will be of great interest to those studying or working in any field of international economic law, as well as human rights scholars and practitioners.

The proliferation of regional trade agreements (RTAs) over the past two decades has highlighted the need to look closely at the potential conflicts between regional and WTO rules or disciplines. A major obstacle to advancing understanding of RTAs is the absence of detailed information about their contents. This has limited the debate between those who view RTAs as discriminatory instruments hostage to protectionist interests and those who see them as conducive to multilateral trade opening. This book provides detailed analysis of RTA rules in six key areas - market access, technical barriers to trade, contingent protection, investment, services and competition policy - across dozens of the main RTAs in the world. The analysis helps to provide new insights into the interplay between regional and multilateral trade rules, advances understanding of the economic effects of RTAs and contributes to the discussion on how to deal with the burgeoning number of RTAs.

Coherence is highly valued in law. It is especially sought after in investor-state dispute settlement, where charges of incoherence in arbitral awards have long been raised by states and scholars. Yet coherence is a largely underexplored notion in international law. Often, it is treated as a mere ideal to strive towards or simply as a different way to describe the legal consistency of judicial outcomes. This book takes a different approach. It sees coherence as an independent concept having two dimensions: a substantive and a methodological one. Both are critically important for legal reasoning by international courts and tribunals, including by investor-state tribunals, and the book illustrates through several case studies some of the ways this conclusion is borne out in practice. A fuller understanding of coherence in international law has implications for our understanding of the concept of law, the practice of legal reasoning, and judicial professional ethics.

The dark side of preferential trade agreements, Rules of Origin (RoO) are used to determine the eligibility of goods to preferential treatment. Ostensibly meant to prevent the trans-shipment of imported products across Free Trade Agreement borders after superficial screwdriver assembly, they act in reality as complex and opaque trade barriers. This book provides evidence strongly suggesting that they do so by intent rather than accidentally--in other words, that RoOs are policy. Part one draws insights about the effects of RoOs on cross-border trade and outsourcing from recent economic theory. Part two reviews the evidence on RoOs in preferential agreements around the world, putting together the most comprehensive dataset on RoOs to date. Part three explores their "political economy"--how special interests have shaped them and continue to do so. Part four provides econometric evidence on their costs for exporters and consequent effects on trade flows. Finally, part five explores how they affect trade in the developing world where they spread rapidly and have the potential to do most harm. Beyond the collection of new evidence and its interpretation in light of recent theory, the book's overall message for the policy community is that RoOs are a potentially powerful and new barrier to trade. Rather than being relegated to closed-door technical meetings, their design should hold center-stage in trade negotiations.

This book offers an exciting overview of how the investor-state dispute settlement mechanism currently deals with allegations and/or evidence of fraud and corruption. It provides a detailed analysis of the legal framework under which arbitral tribunals usually operate in investment disputes involving allegations of illegality. Readers will find step-by-step examinations of the corruption and fraud arguments employed by arbitral tribunals in ten landmark ISDS cases, followed by a chapter summarizing the status quo on the topic. The final part of the book discusses the identified challenges of addressing illegality issues in investment arbitration and potential solutions, including the creation of a multilateral investment court.

International insolvency is a newly-established branch of the study of insolvency that owes much to the phenomenon of cross-border incorporations and the conduct of business in more than one jurisdiction. It is largely the offspring of globalisation and involves looking at both law and economic rules. This book is a compendium of essays by eminent academics and practitioners in the field, who trace the development of the subject, give an account of the influences of economics, legal history and private international law and chart its relationship with finance and security issues as well as the importance of business rescue as a phenomenon. Furthermore, the essays examine how international instruments introduced in recent years function as well as how the subject itself is continually being innovated by being confronted by the challenges of other areas of law with which it becomes entangled.

This book gathers international and national reports from across the globe on key questions in the field of antitrust and intellectual property. The first part discusses the application of competition law in the pharmaceutical sector, which continues to be a focus for anti-trust authorities around the world. A detailed international report explores the extent to which the application of the competition rules in the pharmaceutical sector should be affected by the specific characteristics of those products and markets (including consumer protection rules, the need to promote innovation, the need to protect public budgets, and other public interest considerations). It provides an excellent comparative study of this complex subject, which lies at the interface between competition law and intellectual property law. The second part of the book gathers contributions from various jurisdictions on the topic of "What rules should govern claims by suppliers about the national or geographic origin of their goods or services?" This section presents an international report, which offers an unparalleled comparative analysis of this topic, bringing together common themes and contrasting the various national provisions dealing with indications of origin, amongst other things. The book also includes the resolutions passed by the General Assembly of the International League of Competition Law (LIDC) following a debate on each of these topics, which include proposed solutions and recommendations. The LIDC is a long-standing international association that focuses on the interface between competition law and intellectual property law, including unfair competition issues.

The ICSID Reports provide the only comprehensive collection of the arbitral awards and decisions given under the auspices of the World Bank's International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes or pursuant to other multilateral or bilateral investment treaties, including in particular the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). These decisions make an important contribution to the growing body of jurisprudence on international investment. The ICSID Reports are an invaluable tool for practitioners and scholars alike working in the field of international commercial arbitration or advising foreign investors. Volume 11 of the ICSID Reports includes the ICSID award and the English High Court judgment on the application for its enforcement in AIG Capital v. Kazakhstan, the full proceedings in CDC Group Plc v. Republic of the Seychelles, the first investor-State arbitral award under the ECT and the NAFTA award in Waste Management (No. 2).

The multilateral trading system and the WTO, its principal institution, are currently in crisis. Now more than ever, it is essential to provide a sound understanding of WTO rules and procedures, and their contribution to a secure and predictable framework for trading relations between nations. This book provides a timely and carefully considered overview of the substantive rules and institutional arrangements of the WTO, written in a concise and highly reader-friendly manner. It provides a clear and systematic discussion of key issues of WTO law, and incorporates important case law and current debates. It includes useful pedagogical features such as illustrative examples of the application of the legal framework to practical situations to facilitate understanding, as well as lists of further reading. Co-written by a leading authority in the field, it forms essential reading for anyone who wants to get to grips with this fascinating and challenging field of law.

Pushing the boundaries between domestic and unified laws, this book explores the differences between unification and harmonization. Bruno Zeller provides a critical examination of the Convention for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), the advances of international jurisprudence and the role of domestic courts, in order to consider whether unification is merely a myth or a reality.

Describing the salient features of unification and harmonization and using the CISG as a vehicle to test unification attempts, this volume touches on controversial points and fosters debates upon efforts to unify laws in discrete areas. It examines the assumption that the creation of a convention introduces a uniform law, which then contributes to the harmonization of international laws.

Provocative, this is a must read for postgraduates and researchers studying and working in the fields of comparative and international trade law.

Pushing the boundaries between domestic and unified laws, this book explores the differences between unification and harmonization. Bruno Zeller provides a critical examination of the Convention for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), the advances of international jurisprudence and the role of domestic courts, in order to consider whether unification is merely a myth or a reality.

Describing the salient features of unification and harmonization and using the CISG as a vehicle to test unification attempts, this volume touches on controversial points and fosters debates upon efforts to unify laws in discrete areas. It examines the assumption that the creation of a convention introduces a uniform law, which then contributes to the harmonization of international laws.

Provocative, this is a must read for postgraduates and researchers studying and working in the fields of comparative and international trade law.

This volume provides a comprehensive and interdisciplinary examination of the Multilateral Non-Proliferation Export Control system and the national and international context within which it functions. Key features: "

This book consists of edited versions of the papers delivered at the Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law's 11th International Colloquium, held at Swansea Law School in September 2015. Featuring a team of contributors at the top of their profession, both in practice and academia, these papers have been carefully co-ordinated so as to ensure to give the reader a first class insight into the issues surrounding international sale and carriage contracts. The book is set out in three parts: Part I offers a detailed and critical analysis on emerging issues and unresolved questions in international sales and the carriage contracts affected to facilitate such sales. Part II critically and thoroughly analyses the legal issues that often arise in the context of security over goods, letters of credit and similar documents. Part III is dedicated to a critical and up-to-date discussion on matters concerning cargo insurance in this context. With its breadth of coverage and high-quality analysis, this book is vital reading for both professional and academic readers with an interest in international trade and carriage of goods.

This book presents a conceptual framework for analysing the definitions of State aid and subsidy in EC and WTO law. This is done through a comparative analysis, examining the coherence of the conceptual understanding of the crucial, but still elusive, issue of the definition of subsidy. The first, important finding is that the topic is not only technical but raises more fundamental questions about the objectives of subsidy control in a given legal system and, more radically, about the goals of that system itself. The analysis does not only concentrate on the state of the law but critically looks forward offering suggestions for new interpretations and law reform. The book focuses on the substantive provisions of the EC and WTO relating to what are identified by the author as the core properties of a notion of subsidy, ie a form of public action, the grant of an economic advantage and the ensuing impact on the competitive process. The current regulation in EC and WTO law is analysed, compared and assessed in depth, and tested against a baseline represented by of a notion of subsidy inserted in a subsidy regulation pursuing certain objectives. Drawing on the results of the comparative exercise, the book argues that both systems can learn valuable lessons from each other to achieve a greater coherence and a more efficient regulatory system.

This volume examines the impact of and interplay between human rights and insurance. National, supranational and international legal instruments regulating the taking-up and pursuit of the business of insurance and reinsurance, (re)insurance distribution and the insurance contract often refer to or impact on human or fundamental rights. Courts are often faced with the sometimes seemingly impossible task of reconciling insurance core principles, practices and mind-sets with the principles and values stemming from human rights protection. In some cases, such as that of discrimination in insurance, this discussion has been going on for decades. Some deal with hot topics which have more recently emerged in light of developments stemming from technologic innovations ('InsurTech'). The first part of the book focuses on insurance and the right to equal treatment. Discrimination on the basis of factors such as gender or age is tackled, from the perspectives of the European Union, Canada and South Africa. The second part of the book highlights the very relevant role played by insurance in the upholding of the right to health, covering the United States of America, Africa and Brazil. The third part of the book explores InsurTech's manifold challenges upon the right to privacy, focusing on European Union. The fourth part tackles the threat posed by insurance on the right to life in general, but with a particular focus on the United Kingdom. Written by legal scholars and practitioners, the book offers international, comparative and regional or national perspectives, aiming to contribute to a more thorough and systematic understanding of the interactions between these two very different fields of law, providing the industry as well as the scientific community with insights from both sides of this seemingly difficult to transpose divide.

The ICSID Reports provide the only comprehensive collection of the arbitral awards and decisions given under the auspices of the World Bank??'s International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes or pursuant to other multilateral or bilateral investment treaties. These decisions make an important contribution to the growing body of jurisprudence on international investment. The series also includes arbitration under the Additional Facility to the ICSID Convention which has increased in recent years, most notably in relation to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Volume 7 of the ICSID Reports brings the series substantially up to date and includes the decision of 28 May 2003 on the supplementation and rectification of the annulment decision in CAA and Vivendi Universal v. Argentina, the award of 26 June 2003 in Loewen v. USA and the rulings and awards in Pope and Talbot, Inc. v. Canada.

World Trade Organisation (WTO) trade remedies (antidumping, anti-subsidy and safeguard agreements) are instruments used by WTO members to counter the economic injury caused by dumping, subsidies and the sudden and unforeseen increased imports. They are exceptions to the WTO principle of free trade and to the prohibition for States to react unilaterally to protect their own rights and interests, and as a result they have been accused by some as being the new tools of protectionism. This book analyses of the role and principles of WTO trade remedies in international law. In particular, it focuses on their aims, their structure, and their position within the WTO and more in general, the international legal system. The book considers trade remedies in light of fragmentation theories of international law and addresses the question how, and to what extent WTO law reflects and influences public international law.

Published in 1997, in this book an attempt has been made to analyze the legal structure of GATT and the WTO as well as those agreements which control trade in textiles. One of the GATT's major failures was its inability to come into line with the new economic reality and the needs of those states who created this system for controlling international trade. Trade in textiles was an excellent example of this. Now, the WTO aims to overcome this problem thanks to its greater pragmatism and its search for solutions to free trade difficulties. The WTO is not, however, the perfect solution. Its highly political character allows room for improvement even though the key to its success still lies with the effective cooperation of member states. As for the textile sector, this new panorama for trade in goods provides it with a new opportunity to finally return to the general legal framework in the year 2005.

Part one of Volume 4 (2013) of the European Yearbook of International Economic Law offers a special focus on recent developments in international competition policy and law. International competition law has only begun to emerge as a distinct subfield of international economic law in recent years, even though international agreements on competition co-operation date back to the 1970s. Competition law became a prominent subject of political and academic debates in the late 1990s when competition and trade were discussed as one of the Singaporeissues in the WTO. Today, international competition law is a complex and multi-layered system of rules and principles encompassing not only the external application of domestic competition law and traditional bilateral co-operation agreements, but also competition provisions in regional trade agreements and non-binding guidelines and standards. Furthermore, the relevance of competition law for developing countries and the relationship between competition law and public services are the subject of heated debates. The contributions to this volume reflect the growing diversity of the issues and elements of international competition law.

Part two presents analytical reports on the developments of the regional integration processes in North America, Central Africa and Southeast Asia as well as on the treaty practice of the European Union. Part three covers the legal and political developments in major international organizations that deal with international economic law, namely the IMF, WCO, WTO, WIPO, ICSID and UNCTAD. Lastly, part four offers book reviews of recent works in the field of international economic law."

This is an examination of the origins and impact of the agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) negotiated during the Uruguay Round of GATT talks. The principal theme is that the TRIPS agreement is not in the best interests of the poorer countries, and that its imposition on them by the richer countries has more to do with the exercise of political and economic power than with the positive economic benefits the agreement's supporters claim it can deliver. To support this assertion the book critically examines the economic evidence regarding the impact of intellectual property rights on such important variables as export performance, foreign investment, and economic growth. The author provides a political economic analysis of why the poorer countries acceded to the TRIPS agreement, illustrated with case studies of two important industries where the struggle over intellectual property is especially strong: pharmaceutical and agricultural biotechnology sectors. Designed for use in advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in international political economy and international relations theory, the book offer a radical view of the process of globalization.

Verico discusses the ASEAN economic integration from dual perspectives of time span (trade, investment and finance) and framework (bilateral, sub-regional, regional and regional plus). The work is a comprehensive study of the integration in the wake of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC)'s inauguration in late 2015. Examining various economic agreement levels from the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), Bilateral Free Trade Agreement (BFTA) and the AEC to financial integration in ASEAN, Verico attempts to envisage the future of ASEAN in completing its regional economic integration from trade to investment and finance. Verico argues that, in the absence of a customs union, ASEAN must utilize the open-regionalism frameworks of the ASEAN Plus One, ASEAN Plus Three, Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and others in order to shift its economic integration level in this way.

This book consists of edited versions of the papers delivered at the Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law's 11th International Colloquium, held at Swansea Law School in September 2015. Featuring a team of contributors at the top of their profession, both in practice and academia, these papers have been carefully co-ordinated so as to ensure to give the reader a first class insight into the issues surrounding international sale and carriage contracts. The book is set out in three parts: Part I offers a detailed and critical analysis on emerging issues and unresolved questions in international sales and the carriage contracts affected to facilitate such sales. Part II critically and thoroughly analyses the legal issues that often arise in the context of security over goods, letters of credit and similar documents. Part III is dedicated to a critical and up-to-date discussion on matters concerning cargo insurance in this context. With its breadth of coverage and high-quality analysis, this book is vital reading for both professional and academic readers with an interest in international trade and carriage of goods.

The essays in this volume attempt to explore and elucidate some of the legal and constitutional complexities of the relationship between the EU and the WTO,focusing particularly on the impact of the latter and its relevance for the former. The effect of WTO norms is evident across a broad range of European economic and social policy fields, affecting regulatory and distributive policies alike. A number of significant areas have been selected in this book to exemplify the scope and intensity of impact, including EC single market law, external trade, structural and cohesion funding, cultural policy, social policy, and aspects of public health and environmental policy. Certain chapters seek to examine the legal and political points of intersection between the two legal orders, and many of the essays explore in different ways the normative dimension of the relationship between the EU and the WTO and the legitimacy claims of the latter.

An unprecedented surge in the scope and level of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection has been engulfing the world. This globalizing trend has shifted the balance of interests between private innovators and society at large and tensions have flared around key public policy concerns. As developing nations' policy options to use IPRs in support of their broader development strategy are being rapidly narrowed down, many experts are questioning the one-size-fits-all approach to IPR protection and are backing a rebalancing of the global regime. Developing countries face huge challenges when designing and implementing IPR-policy on all levels. This book offers perspectives from a diverse range of developing country participants including civil society participants, farmers, grassroots organizations, researchers and government officials. Contributions from well-known developed country authorities round out the selections.