Simon Lester

Last week, I wrote in praise of the China - Australia FTA (ChAFTA) ISDS provisions, suggesting that they were narrower in scope than typical ISDS provisions, in a good way.  I liked the fact that they left open whether to incorporate expropriation and minimum standard of treatment provisions, leaving that

This is a guest post from Henning Grosse Ruse - Khan  For a paper I have been working on (http://ssrn.com/abstract=2610576), I am looking for comments on applying GATT disciplines (such as Art.I, III, V and XI) as well as the General Exception rule in Art.

Remember the Yukos investment arbitration award?  Here is Reuters from last year discussing the award: An international arbitration court ruled on Monday that Russia must pay $50 billion for expropriating the assets of Yukos, the former oil giant whose ex-owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky fell foul of the Kremlin. Now here is

From the NY Times earlier this week: The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday gave the food industry three years to eliminate artery-clogging artificial trans fats from the food supply, a long-awaited step that capped years of effort by consumer groups and is expected to save thousands of lives a

From Transnational Dispute Management: ArbitralWomen, Transnational Dispute Management and Ashurst would be delighted if you would join us for the launch of "Dealing with Diversity in International Arbitration" followed by a drinks reception. This Special Issue will analyse discrimination and diversity in international arbitration. It will examine new

The full text of the China - Australia FTA is out.  The investment chapter is here.  It is really interesting what they have done.  They include the usual national treatment and MFN provisions, but then that's about it for obligations, at least for now.  For everything else, there

Hillary Clinton was talking trade in New Hampshire today, in response to questions from reporters.  I don't see the full video or transcript anywhere on the internet yet (I suspect it will be up there soon), but Ted Alden of CFR sent me something he had (this is

This is from The Economist: A FEW years ago a wise pollster—pondering how labels like left-wing and right-wing have been scrambled by globalisation—came up with a different way to sort voters in Western democracies. Electorates, he suggested, broadly divide into two groups, one of which sees change and

This is from my Cato colleague Bill Watson: A very unexpected outcome during a series of votes on trade policy in the House of Representatives has managed to confuse pretty much everyone today. The most important and controversial bill in the package was Trade Promotion Authority, which narrowly passed the

This is from the White House Blog: As Ambassadors, we are on the front lines representing the United States. We know firsthand that U.S. interests are best served when we pursue policies that also advance our values. That’s why trade policy is among our most promising tools. Done