Simon Lester

I wanted to welcome Inu Manak as a contributor to this blog. Inu was our research assistant at Cato's trade policy center, and she has been my co-author on several journal articles and op-eds. She is now a PhD student in poli sci at Georgetown (studying

Like most people, I didn't expect the UK voters to support Brexit. I figured this vote would be like all the other secession votes that come along, with a rejection at the end.  But with the vote going the way it did, whatever you think of the idea

This is from the Financial Times: Germany’s highest court has ruled that the country’s utilities should be compensated for the government’s decision in the wake of the Fukushima disaster to shut down all Germany’s nuclear reactors. The decision by the Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe is a

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