Simon Lester

I've always been a little confused by the controversy over including financial services in the TTIP.  The EU wants it in; the U.S. is resisting.  But why is the U.S. resisting?  If they want to protect U.S. industry from competition, I don't have

It has always seemed to me there is insufficient study of the substance of investment treaties, i.e., what do the obligations mean, what is their impact, etc.  I often hear that the principles are no different from what is found in domestic law, but that doesn't satisy

The parties have agreed to an implementation deadline of October 18, 2015.  This is from the Canada-EU agreement: We wish to inform you that, with reference to our previous communication from 24 July 2014 and pursuant to Article 21.3(b) of the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the

Some of you may have seen this short article I wrote for the JIEL, which looks at the GATT negotiating history of the precursor provisions to TBT Agreement Articles 2.1 and 2.2 (there's a little more technical detail in the piece here), in the period 1969

A little while back, I wondered about public opinion on investment obligations.  In this regard, my friend Luke Peterson points me to some data on Americans' views of ICSID.  It's such awful data, though, that I should probably just ignore it.  I only highlight it to make

Some details on an upcoming conference on mega-regionals: On 23rd and 24th October 2014 the Research Centre for International Economic Law at the University of Dresden led by Professor Thilo Rensmann and the affiliated research project “Global TranSAXion” will be hosting a conference on “Mega-Regionals and the Future of International