An in-depth analysis of the core legal concepts characterising the two most prominent efforts in the regulation of international trade.

This concise and reader-friendly overview of WTO law is essential reading for anyone needing an introduction to this complex field.

Trade in services, far more than trade in goods, is affected by a variety of domestic regulations, ranging from qualification and licensing requirements in professional services to pro-competitive regulation in telecommunications services. Experience shows that the quality of regulation strongly influences the consequences of trade liberalization. WTO members have agreed that a central task in the ongoing services negotiations will be to develop a set of rules to ensure that domestic regulations support rather than impede trade liberalization. Since these rules are bound to have a profound impact on the evolution of policy, particularly in developing countries, it is important that they be conducive to economically rational policy-making. This book addresses two central questions: What impact can international trade rules on services have on the exercise of domestic regulatory sovereignty? And how can services negotiations be harnessed to promote and consolidate domestic policy reform across highly diverse sectors? The book, with contributions from several of the world's leading experts in the field, explores a range of rule-making challenges arising at this policy interface, in areas such as transparency, standards and the adoption of a necessity test for services trade. Contributions also provide an in-depth look at these issues in the key areas of accountancy, energy, finance, health, telecommunications and transportation services.

An in-depth analysis of 'product likeness' in GATT law - the key concept for the application of the non-discrimination principle.

The United Nations is commemorating the 25th anniversary of the 1986 Declaration on the Right to Development, which proclaimed the right to be: 'an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development, in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be realized'. The UN now aims to mainstream the right into its policies and operational activities, and is reviewing prospects for an internationally-binding legal instrument. The evolution of the right to development, however, has been dominated by debates about its conceptual validity and practical ramifications. It has been hailed as the cornerstone of the entire human rights system and criticized as a distracting ideological initiative. Questions also persist about the role of the right in reforming the international economic order. This book examines the legal and moral foundations of the right to development, addressing the major issues. It then considers the right to development in the global economy, noting the challenges of globalization and identifying key principles such as differential treatment of developing countries, participation and accountability. It relates the right to broad objectives such as the Millennium Development Goals, the human rights-based approach to development, and environmental sustainability. Implications for international economic law and policy in the areas of trade, development finance and corporate responsibility are assessed. The conclusion looks to the legal and ethical contributions - and limitations - of the right to development in this new context. With an academic and professional background in international law, human rights and moral theology, the author brings a unique interdisciplinary focus to this timely project.

This book addresses the role of domestic courts in the enforcement of international trade agreements by examining the experiences of Brazilian and the European Union courts. This comparative study analyzes the differences, similarities and consequences of Brazilian and European courts’ decisions in relation to the WTO agreements, which have “direct effect” in Latin American emerging economies, but not in the European Union or other developed countries. It observes that domestic courts’ enforcement of international trade agreements has had several unintended and counterproductive consequences, which were foreseeable in light of international scholarly debate on the direct effect of WTO agreements. It draws lessons from these jurisdictions’ experiences and argues that the traditional academic literature that fosters domestic courts’ enforcement of international law should be reconsidered in Latin America in relation to international trade agreements. This book defends the view that, as a result of their function and objectives together with the principles of popular sovereignty and democratic self-government, international trade agreements should not be considered to be self-executing or to have direct effect. This empirical work will be valuable to anyone interested in the effects of international trade rules at the domestic level and the role of domestic judges in international law.

Standardization is a classic form of rulemaking. Nonetheless, it is notoriously diffuse and gives rise to questions and debate; in particular over the standards' normativity, legitimacy and nature - whether public or private, national or international. Moritz J. K. Blenk applies a policy-orientated approach to international law to comparatively analyze the role of private rulemaking within the context of international economic integration in the World Trade Organization and the European Union. He thereby aims to elucidate the opaque phenomenon of private standardization from a legal perspective and, more profoundly, shed new light on economic integration.

This comparison of EU and WTO approaches to common trade-liberalisation challenges brings together eighteen authors from Europe and America. Together they explore fundamental legal issues, such as the role of general principles of law, the role of the judiciary in the development of law, the effect of the principle of non-discrimination and the elimination of non-discriminatory barriers to trade. The contributions also examine the most recent developments in trade law across a full range of trade issues, including TBT and SPS, services, intellectual property, customs rules, safeguards, anti-dumping and government procurement. Adopting a comparative perspective throughout, this volume sheds light on today's trade law and suggests paths forward for each system through the perennial tensions between open, non-discriminatory trade and strongly held national values and objectives.

What are the different market types that shape the European Union's internal market? Schütze proposes three models that assist in explaining the transitions in the structure of the EU internal market. The international model demands that each state limits its external sovereignty, while retaining internal sovereignty over its national market. The federal model declares that within a "common market" states must lose a part of their internal sovereignty, and in accordance with the principle of "home state" control, goods are entitled to be sold freely on a "foreign" market in compliance with home state law. The national model proposes that the trade restrictions above a legislative or judicial Union standard should be removed. Schütze's book analyses the changing structure of European law in relation to the European internal market. The General Part starts out by offering a historical analysis of the relationship between international law and market coordination up to the twentieth century but also provides an in-depth analysis of the constitutional principles which controlled the "integration" of the US "common market". The Special Part then specifically addresses the decline of the international model in relation to the EU internal market and the corresponding rise of a federal market philosophy after Cassis de Dijon. The final chapter explores the exceptional constitutional principles that apply to fiscal matters. This is the second volume in Schütze's trilogy on the "Changing Structure of European Law". Exploring the changing structure of negative integration in the past 60 years, the book complements his previous volume "From Dual to Cooperative Federalism" which analysed the evolving structure of positive integration. A third volume will finally explore the formal constitutional aspects in the evolution of the European Union into a federal union of States.

Research Handbook on International Law and Natural Resources provides a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the role of international law in regulating the exploration and exploitation of natural resources. It illuminates interactions and tensions between international environmental law, human rights law and international economic law. It also discusses the relevance of soft law, international dispute settlement, as well as of various unilateral, bilateral, regional and transnational initiatives in the governance of natural resources. While the Handbook is accessible to those approaching the subject for the first time, it identifies pressing areas for further investigation that will be of interest to advanced researchers.