This extensive volume of the Elgar Encyclopedia of Environmental Law probes the essential concepts, contemporary research, and key elements of law at the intersection of international trade and international environmental law. Its succinct, structured entries provide a definitive and comprehensive assessment of the interactions between these fields, written by internationally renowned and recognized experts. Analysing the key legal issues and questions raised by the impact of trade on the environment, the volume offers a thorough overview of the relationship between the World Trade Organization and the rules of environmental law, sustainability, and climate change. Each entry constitutes a nuanced and lucid introduction to the major cross-cutting topics in these dynamic fields, including examinations of national and regional approaches, WTO disputes, and the interface between trade, environment and areas such as human rights, investment and development. Featuring 107 entries divided into seven thematic parts, this volume is a landmark reference work which will prove invaluable to academics, students and researchers in international trade and environmental law, as well as public international law more broadly. It will also be a key resource for practitioners, policymakers and government officials working in any aspect of trade and environment.

The interaction between climate change and trade has grown in prominence in recent years. This Research Handbook contains authoritative original contributions from leading experts working at the interface between climate change and trade rules. Regional as well as international perspectives are taken into account to inform the complex questions that arise and redirect research efforts towards newly emerging issues. The Research Handbook on Climate Change and Trade Law discusses some of the most important challenges regarding conflicting interests at the intersection of trade, climate change and investment. The insightful chapters map from both regional and global perspectives the state of affairs in such diverse areas as: carbon credits and taxes, sustainable standard-setting, and trade in 'green' goods and services. This timely book redefines the interrelationship of trade and climate change for future scholarship and offers specific suggestions for much-needed research in topics such as energy, carbon taxes and credits, food, standardization, and investment. This Research Handbook will be essential reading for researchers and advanced students in international trade and investment law. It will also be an invaluable resource for practitioners and policymakers in this dynamic and highly significant area of law. Contributors include: M. Alder, P. Arnaiz, S. Bigdeli, J. Chaisse, T. Cottier, P. Delimatsis, A. Dimopoulos, F. Fleurke, A. Gourgourinis, A.H. Lim, J. McMahon, S. Melnyk, J. Munro, K. Nadakavukaren Schefer, R. Partain, T. Payosova, V. Pogoretskyy, D. Ramos, E. Reid, M. Rimmer, L. Tamiotti, J.P. Trachtman, A. vanDuzer, E. Vranes, M. Wu, M. Young, R. Zhang

This book explores how State capitalism affects and reshapes international investment law. It sheds new light on the various ways States actively influence business and commercial activity globally by using sovereign investors such as state-owned enterprises and sovereign wealth funds or pension funds. With a diverse group of contributors from a broad range of countries, the book offers a fresh and timely look into the fundamentals of State capitalism, focusing in particular on its actors and processes, the contextual elements that surround it, and the new political economy that comes with it. The book is essential reading for researchers, regulators, policy makers, and practitioners interested in the different ways State capitalism challenges and changes international investment law. As geopolitical considerations increasingly affect global economic activity, delving into the intricacies of State capitalism has never been more timely.

In recent years transnational private regulators have emerged and multiplied. In this book, experts from various academic disciplines offer empirically grounded case studies and theoretical insights into the evolution and resilience of these bodies through crises. Transnational private regulators display considerable flexibility if compared to public institutions both in exercising their rule-making functions and adapting and transforming in light of endogenous or exogenous crises events calling for change. The contributors identify such events and reflect on their impact on transnational private rule-makers. This edited volume covers important areas of global production and finance that are associated with private rule-making and delves into procedural, substantive and practical elements of private rule-making processes. At a policy level, the book provides comparisons among practices of private bodies in various areas, allowing for important lessons to be drawn for all public and private stakeholders active in, or affected by, private and public rule-making. This title is Open Access.

In an era of increased reliance on private regulatory bodies and globalised economic activity, standardisation is the field where politics, technical expertise and strategic behaviour meet and interact. International standard-setting bodies exemplify the rise of transnational governance and the challenges that it brings about relating to institutional choice, legitimacy, procedural and substantive fairness or transparency. This book takes a more empirical-based approach focusing on the mechanics of international standard-setting. It constitutes a multidisciplinary inquiry into the foundations of international standard-setting, an empirically under-researched yet important area of international informal lawmaking. Contributors expertly examine the peculiarities of international standardisation in selected issue-areas and legal orders and shed light on the attributes of international standard-setters, allowing comparisons among standard-setting bodies with a view to identifying best practices and improve our understanding about standardisation processes.

For a long time, the GATT led a life of its own as a self-contained regime. The evolution from tariff to non-tariff barriers brought about increasing overlaps with other regulatory areas. WTO rules increasingly interface with other areas of law and policy, including environmental protection, agricultural policies, labour standards, investment, human rights and regional integration. Against this backdrop, this book examines fragmentation in international trade regulation across a wide array of regulatory fields. To this end, it uses a conceptually coherent theoretical framework which is based on the effort to bring about greater coherence among different policy goals and fields, and thus to embed the multilateral trading system within the broader framework of international economics, law and relations. It will appeal to those interested in a forward-looking discussion of the most pressing issues of the international trade agenda.

In an era of increased reliance on private regulatory bodies and globalised economic activity, standardisation is the field where politics, technical expertise and strategic behaviour meet and interact. International standard-setting bodies exemplify the rise of transnational governance and the challenges that it brings about relating to institutional choice, legitimacy, procedural and substantive fairness or transparency. This book takes a more empirical-based approach focusing on the mechanics of international standard-setting. It constitutes a multidisciplinary inquiry into the foundations of international standard-setting, an empirically under-researched yet important area of international informal lawmaking. Contributors expertly examine the peculiarities of international standardisation in selected issue-areas and legal orders and shed light on the attributes of international standard-setters, allowing comparisons among standard-setting bodies with a view to identifying best practices and improve our understanding about standardisation processes.

In 2005 the WTO Appellate body ruled that the United States' total prohibition on cross border gambling services was unlawful under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The questions raised by the case - whether and how a Government could block service provision on moral grounds - went to the heart of key controversies surrounding international economic law. How do you reconcile a liberal system of international trade in services with national governments' desire to protect social values through service regulation? How much control are the WTO members willing to transfer to the WTO? How much regulatory diversity can the international trading system withstand? This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the regulation of services under the WTO's GATS Agreement. Through a thorough examination of the GATS negotiation history, substantive provisions, judicial interpretation, and ongoing reform process, the book presents a clear picture of how the multilateral trading system justifies and tolerates regulatory diversity. In this respect, the book focuses on the core general principles of necessity and transparency, which would allow the assessment of the consistency with the GATS of domestic regulations in services at a horizontal, cross-sectoral level. In addition, the book reviews with a critical eye the ongoing GATS negotiations on the creation of rules on domestic regulations.