Simon Lester

This is from Lorand Bartels, in the latest AJIL: The Chapeau of the General Exceptions in the WTO GATT and GATS Agreements: A Reconstruction ... Conclusions This article argues that the Appellate Body has misunderstood the chapeau and that, in particular, there is no analytic, structural, or even thematic difference between

Let's say California is experiencing a serious drought. And let's say companies are bottling and selling municipal water from California. And let's say that the price set by the government for the purchase of this water is low enough that it contributes to consumption

This is from Inside US Trade: In Tie Vote, ITC Find U.S. Producers Are Injured By Chinese Tire Imports In a victory for the United Steelworkers (USW) union, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) on Tuesday (July 14) issued a final determination that domestic tire producers are being

This is from a submission by a number of WTO Members who are skeptical of allowing non-violation and situation complaints -- through the removal of the current moratorium on those complaints -- under the TRIPS Agreement: Non-violation and situation complaints are unnecessary to protect any balance of rights and obligations

This is from Fredrik Erixon of Brussels think tank ECIPE: Thirdly, it is difficult to find economic justifications to put copyright concerns in the top league of priorities. Copyrights are already much longer than is economically motivated. There is not an efficient system for global registration and transfers of copyrights;

I wish there were a lot less talk of the TPP leading to massive job losses or job gains, and instead people said more sensible things like this, from Ted Moran: But economists are taught—as a matter of theory—that trade agreements cannot be expected to create a greater

We discussed what Australia's Productivity Commission thought of ISDS back here.  Now they have something more to say, but I couldn't do anywhere near as good a job explaining it as Esme Shirlow did over at the Kluwer Arbitration Blog.  Here's an excerpt, but

I've always assumed that when you have an international investment treaty, which sets out obligations that states have to follow (and are subject to legal claims when they do not), this is public international law.  That is the case even if the "judges" hearing the claim

People keep asking me what I think of the TPP.  Given that, aside from a few leaks, I haven't seen the text, I'm a little unsure how to answer.  It kind of depends what's in it.  Nonetheless, I offered some preliminary thoughts here.  An