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Simon Lester

Simon Lester

Co-founder of WorldTradeLaw.net and China Trade Monitor. Non-resident fellow at the Baker Institute.

http://simonlester.com

More on That Interesting Debate

In the comments on that last post, Marc Benitah asked why I thought this was such an important debate. I had been planning to explain this anyway, so I'm glad he asked. I think the distinction between "protectionism" and "terms of trade manipulation," as

The Most Interesting Trade Debate You've Probably Never Heard Of

There's a great debate that has been going on slowly and sporadically, over a period of years, about the purpose of trade agreements. On one side are Don Regan of Michigan Law School and economist Bill Ethier; on the other side are economists Kyle Bagwell and Rob Staiger,

State Subsidy Competition Is Bad

From a new paper by economist Ralph Ossa: U.S. cities, counties, and states spend substantial resources on subsidies trying to attract firms. According to a New York Times database which I describe in detail later on, expenditures for such subsidies range from $33.4 million per year in Nevada

Fifteen Fully Funded PhD Positions in Dispute Resolution in International Law

From the International Max Planck Research School for Successful Dispute Resolution in International Law: Fifteen fully funded PhD positions in International Law, starting in 2015 and 2016, are currently open at the International Max Planck Research School for Successful Dispute Resolution (IMPRS-SDR), a doctoral school established in Heidelberg (Germany)

Worthwhile Canadian Appellate Decision

For years now, I've been fascinated by Canada's Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT), which has a domestic trade dispute system that looks a lot like the dispute systems in international trade agreements. I've never been able to generate much excitement from others about the

Is There Anything That Can Be Done About Anti-Dumping?

In my view, there's not enough talk about anti-dumping these days. Most people seem to have accepted the status quo, and all the big mega-regional trade talks just ignore it. So, I'm always happy to see that some people still care about the issue.

Interview With a TPP Critic

Having observed critics of trade agreements for around 20 years now, I've often wondered about their precise views. It's clear they don't like trade agreements, but what exactly do they want to see from the trade regime? Some of them are almost certainly protectionists,

What if GSP Tariff Preferences Lead to Human Rights Violations?

When I think of GSP conditionality, normally I think of conditions by which the GSP program is designed to change an existing situation in a recipient country (e.g., labor rights violations). But what if the program itself leads to the problem situation? From Sara Núñez Évora, this is a

Postdoctoral Fellowships on the Legitimacy of International Courts and Tribunals

From the University of Oslo Faculty of Law: Up to five 3 year postdoctoral fellowships are available at PluriCourts, a Centre for the Study of the Legitimate Roles of the Judiciary in the Global Order, a multidisciplinary Centre of Excellence at the Faculty of Law, Department of Public and International

Do Judges Have To Write Their Opinions Themselves?

From the Kluwer Arbitration blog, there is an interesting challenge going on relating to the role of assistance provided to an international arbitration tribunal: The Russian Federation argues that the arbitrators delegated substantive responsibilities to the Tribunal’s assistant and thus breached their mandate to perform their duties personally. Therefore,