Simon Lester

The next four years are going to be rough. Trade is one of many areas where Donald Trump has said some things that are far out of the mainstream. Some of his statements just carry on current policy ("I am going to instruct the U.S. Trade Representative to

This is from the recent U.S. DSB statement related to the EU - Biodiesel Measures Appellate Body report: The United States, however, would like to draw the DSB’s attention to an important systemic issue with implications for the operation of the dispute settlement system. The issue is how

This is from Laurens Ankersmit: So what are the main legal issues underlying ICS and EU law? It is clear that the Treaties in principle permit international agreements providing for state-to-state dispute settlement between the EU and third countries (such as the WTO’s dispute settlement body). Such state-to-state dispute

First it was some groups in Germany. Now someone in Canada is filing a constitutional challenge to CETA. The key documents are here. This is from the press release: The Plaintiffs central challenge is four-fold, namely that: (1) that the federal government does not have the constitutional authority to sign,

CETA has now been signed, although perhaps not yet sealed and delivered. The Joint Interpretative Instrument that helped CETA reach the provisional application stage (ratification is still a ways off) is here. I've been curious about what impact this instrument of interpretation will have on the interpretation of

CALL FOR PAPERS: The Law & Practice of International Courts and Tribunals Special Issue on THE DUTIES, RIGHTS AND POWERS OF INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATORS This special issue of the journal The Law & Practice of International Courts and Tribunals focuses on the duties, rights and powers of international arbitrators in investment

This is from the Washington Post: Liberal advocacy groups are preparing blacklists of candidates for appointments to a Hillary Clinton administration, with one organization even producing opposition research to torpedo contenders they consider too soft on Wall Street or other corporate interests. Planning for a Democratic victory on Nov. 8,

The EU has launched a selection process for the Appellate Body slot that will open up soon: The second and last term in office of Professor Peter Van den Bossche (Belgium) on the WTO Appellate Body is due to expire on 11 December 2017 and a vacancy will arise. The

Are people drawing any lessons from the troubles with CETA? There is still a long way to go with settling the scope of EU trade policy, with a court decision coming and political battles to be fought, and CETA may eventually be fully ratified in its current form. But even

No doubt you have all read about the problems the EU is having with ratifying CETA: After seven years of negotiations on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (Ceta), talks broke down on Friday. This followed a rejection of the deal by Wallonia. Exercising its right under the Belgian federal