International rules on trade in goods are at the core of the multilateral trading system and have been influential in all areas of trade law. The essays in this collection represent the very best academic writing from six decades of international trade law and policy. They range from seminal analyses of the core non-discrimination principles to explorations of areas that are still evolving, such as rules on trade remedies, regional trade agreements and developing countries. Alongside analytical pieces, the editors have included a number of essays with a comparative, institutional, political or economic perspective with an introduction offering their own perspective on these themes. This volume is an essential guide to the legal complexities, controversies and policy implications of the field.

The interpretation and application of the rules of international and regional trade is becoming an increasingly specialized field. This study provides an in-depth analysis of the core legal concepts characterizing the two most prominent and successful efforts in the regulation of international trade to date. Adopting a comparative method, it analyzes the basic legal instruments employed by the EU and the WTO for the purpose of liberalizing trade in goods among their respective Members. To this end, this study offers a fresh look at the principles underlying the basic rules of international trade law, including the prohibition of border measures, the principle of non-discrimination on grounds of nationality, and the principle of reasonableness.

In its ten years of existence, the World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement system has continued to differentiate itself in many ways from more conventional international judicial proceedings such as those before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) or regional integration courts. The regular participation of third parties, the emphasis at all levels of the ordinary meaning of the text of WTO rules, and the raft of proposed amendments to the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) all characterize WTO jurisprudence. In twenty-six incisive contributions, this book covers both the legislative and (quasi) judicial activities encompassed by the WTO dispute settlement system. Essays concerned with rules emphasize proposed improvements and clarifications in such areas as special and differential treatment of less-developed countries, surveillance of implementation, compensation, and suspension of concessions. Other contributions discuss such jurisprudential and practical issues as discrimination, trade-related environmental measures, subsides and countervailing measures, and trade-related intellectual property rights. The authors refer frequently to the panel, Appellate Body and arbitration reports, a chronological list of which appears as an annex. The contributors include WTO arbitrators, members of the WTO Appellate Body, WTO panelists, and academics from a broad spectrum of countries engaged as legal advisers by the WTO, by governments, or by non-governmental organizations. More than a mere snapshot of the current status of the WTO dispute settlement system, this outstanding work represents a comprehensive analysis that brings a fast-moving and crucially significant body ofinternational law into sharp focus.

The proliferation of regional trade agreements, including both free trade agreements and customs unions, over the past decade has provoked many new legal issues in WTO law, public international law, and an emerging law of regional trade agreements.
The various Parts of this book chart this development from a number of perspectives. Part 1 introduces the economic and political underpinnings of regional trade agreements, their constitutional functions, and their role as a locus for integrating trade and human rights. Part 2 examines the WTO rules governing regional trade agreements, focusing on a number of areas in which regional trade agreements prove problematic, such as trade remedies, regulatory standards and rules of origin. Part 3 investigates areas in which regional trade agreements go beyond WTO rules, in areas such as intellectual property, investment, competition, services, sustainable development and mutual recognition, while Part 4 is devoted to the dispute settlement mechanisms of regional trade agreements, and includes illuminating case studies. Part 5 explores the interrelationship between regional trade agreements and the WTO system from the perspective of public international law, involving questions with significance beyond the trade community.

The proliferation of regional trade agreements, including both free trade agreements and customs unions, over the past decade has provoked many new legal issues in WTO law, public international law, and an emerging law of regional trade agreements. The various Parts of this book chart this development from a number of perspectives. Part 1 introduces the economic and political underpinnings of regional trade agreements, their constitutional functions, and their role as a locus for integrating trade and human rights. Part 2 examines the WTO rules governing regional trade agreements, focusing on a number of areas in which regional trade agreements prove problematic, such as trade remedies, regulatory standards and rules of origin. Part 3 investigates areas in which regional trade agreements go beyond WTO rules, in areas such as intellectual property, investment, competition, services, sustainable development and mutual recognition, while Part 4 is devoted to the dispute settlement mechanisms of regional trade agreements, and includes illuminating case studies. Part 5 explores the interrelationship between regional trade agreements and the WTO system from the perspective of public international law, involving questions with significance beyond the trade community.

This book provides a conceptual and legal analysis of the core of investment protection guarantees that emerge from international treaties signed since 1959 for the promotion and protection of foreign investment. It focuses on both the origin and evolution of investment treaty standards. Beginning with origins, the work considers the broader context at the time when the first modern investment treaty was concluded. It goes on to examine the many decisions of ad hoc arbitral tribunals that have since been called upon to apply these treaties in order to resolve the several hundred investor-State disputes. It also looks at some of the recent investment treaties that have attempted to clarify and/or reform the content and scope of investment protection guarantees. Federico Ortino posits that the key investment protection provisions in investment treaties, and thus much of the controversy associated with such treaties, revolve around three concepts: legal stability, investment's value, and reasonableness. He argues that, from the very beginning, the protections afforded to foreign investments by modern investment treaties have been exceptionally broad, and as such restrictive of host States' ability to regulate. And whilst a growing number of investment treaty tribunals, as well as new investment treaties, have to some extent reined in such broad protections, the evolution of key investment protection standards has been marred by inconsistency and uncertainty.