Simon Lester

From the European Commission: The Commission decided today to request an opinion of the EU Court of Justice on the competence to sign and ratify a trade agreement with Singapore. Commissioner De Gucht said: 'I have been saying for months that we need to clarify the interpretation of the

From the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies and Oxford University Press: Dear colleagues, We are writing to invite you to join an exciting new project undertaken by the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies and Oxford University Press. The Oxford Reports on International Law (ORIL) brings together decisions on

As you may have heard, WTO dispute settlement is getting pretty busy these days, which explains why the WTO Secretariat is looking for lawyers to work on these cases: -- Grade 9 lawyers (at least 8 years experience) -- Grade 7 lawyers (at least 3 years experience) There are positions

As this blog's readers all know, under most investment treaties and investment chapters of trade agreements, foreign investors can sue a host government directly in an international tribunal, based on various obligations imposed on the government (fair and equitable treatment, etc.). For those who support this system, I&

Following up on the post yesterday regarding U.S. government documents relating to the Loewen NAFTA case, turns out there was a lot of repetition in those documents.  The main substantive issue was whether court rulings constitute "measures," and how the U.S. should approach this issue as

Previously confidential documents from the Clinton era are being released now and then.  I'm keeping an eye out for items that relate to international economic law.  Here are two recent ones from the Loewen NAFTA case: http://www.clintonlibrary.gov/assets/storage/Research-Digital-Library/formerlywithheld/batch7/2010-0021-F-1.pdf http:

From a speech today by President-elect of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker before the European Parliament: Investor-to-state disputes I took note of the intense debates around investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations. Let me once again state my position clearly, that I had

From OGEL and the TDM journal: Oil, Gas, and Energy Law Journal (www.ogel.org) and Transnational Dispute Management (www.transnational-dispute-management.com) invite submissions for a joint Special Issue on Renewable Energy Disputes. Renewable energy production is nothing new: windmills have been used to produce wind-based energy and dams have

I was struck by this sentence from a Global Trade Watch blog post, in reaction to yesterday's WTO panel report in the Article 21.5 proceeding in U.S. - COOL: The COOL policy was created when Congress enacted mandatory country-of-origin labeling for meat – supported by 92 percent

This is from U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman: investment protections are ... intended to safeguard against a host of abuses, including discrimination, repudiation of contracts, and expropriation of property without due process of law ... It surprises me how little analysis of this issue exists. From what I can tell, the