Simon Lester

The WTO panel in the plain packaging case tells us that the report will be circulated to the parties "not before" May 2017.  So what does that mean for those of us who are not parties, but rather mere members of the public?  For some indication, but not

This is from the latest Columbia FDI Perspectives: A network of bilateral treaties and other international investment agreements (IIAs) has constructed a predictable and enforceable international investment regime. Since 1992, however, the protections offered by this regime have potentially been limited by the inclusion in IIAs of self-judging essential

This is the latest from Donald Trump: The U.S. is going to substantialy reduce taxes and regulations on businesses, but any business that leaves our country for another country, fires its employees, builds a new factory or plant in the other country, and then thinks it will sell its

What will happen if some global governance regimes try to assert their authority over other regimes?  This is from a paper by Lukasz Gruszczynski: The current language of the [Framework Convention on Tobacco Control] does not provide any exclusion clause that would prevent the recourse to other international dispute settlement

This is from Pasha Hsieh: Call for Papers: 2017 ILA-ASIL Asia-Pacific Research Forum, Taipei, Taiwan The Chinese (Taiwan) Society of International Law will hold the ILA-ASIL Asia-Pacific Research Forum on May 19-20, 2017 in Taipei, Taiwan, ROC. The theme of the Research Forum is "

This is from the Washington Post: Trump’s strategy secured an early victory this week when the president-elect persuaded air-conditioning manufacturer Carrier not to move up to 1,000 jobs from Indiana to Mexico. The negotiation was an unusual move for a modern president, but [Treasury secretary nominee

This is from CNBC: Wilbur Ross, President-elect Donald Trump's choice for Commerce secretary, told CNBC on Wednesday he wants to overhaul "dumb trade" deals that the U.S. has with countries around the world. "Believe it or not, Mexico has better treaties with the

My Cato colleague Jim Harper is a bitcoin expert. He explained bitcoins to me once, and I think I understood it all briefly, but it has now escaped me. But now that international trade rules might be relevant, I may take another look.  Here he is explaining how there may

For all you scholars out there hoping to get cited by the WTO Appellate Body, here is the abstract of an interesting paper by Sondre Torp Helmersen, entitled The Use of Scholarship by the WTO Appellate Body: This article examines the use of scholarship by the WTO Appellate Body. While

This is from Indian economist Natasha Agarwal: In a turn of events, on 7th July 2016, the United States made a request pursuant to Article 22.2 of the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (DSU) seeking authorization from the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body (DSB)