Simon Lester

From a draft letter ($) being circulated by a U.S. Congressman: Dear Secretary Kerry and Ambassador Froman, We are writing to express our serious concern regarding the growing assault on religious freedom in the European Union and many of its member states. Eight out of twenty-eight EU member states prohibit

Poland is going to to challenge the EU ban on menthol cigarettes under EU law: Poland will appeal to Europe's top court over a European Union ban on flavoured tobacco products, saying it will be unfairly affected as one of the region's biggest consumers and producers

We talked about the "prudential exception" here, here, and here.  I have a short law journal article coming out on this soon, where I basically argue that the exception is badly worded, nevertheless probably works as an exception, but could and should be redrafted in future trade agreements

From the European Commission: EU trade officials will today start analysing responses to a public consultation on investment protection and ISDS in TTIP, a new EU-US trade deal currently being negotiated. The survey closed yesterday, almost four months after its launch in March. European citizens and interest groups replied in

I'm always on the lookout for good controversies on discrimination outside the WTO context, just to see how others do it.  From the Economist, here's a potential case: BAVARIANS have long been cranky about having to pay road tolls every time they drive through Austria, say,

Edited by Debra Steger, former Director of the Appellate Body Secretariat and now a law professor: With a membership of 160 countries, the World Trade Organization (WTO) is the international organization with responsibility for the global rules of trade between nations. Its stated principal function is to ensure that trade

That's one of the issues in an ongoing NAFTA Chapter 11 case.  Pharmaceutical maker Eli Lilly is making an Article 1110 expropration claim related to the invalidation of certain of its patents in Canadian courts (it also makes an Article 1105 minimum standard of treatment claim).  More background

Last week, Andrew posted about the possibility of an exception to investment obligations, as part of the TTIP.  I'm interested to see where exceptions of this sort can take us in terms of preserving policy space, but I think we should also consider the obligations themselves as part

Many of you have probably noticed a new WorldTradeLaw.net web site.  Some aspects of the site are free for everyone, so I thought I'd mention one particular issue here on this blog:  How to link to PDF versions of WTO DS documents on the site. On the