Simon Lester

The U.S. has been threatening to pursue complaints under labor chapters of trade agreements for a while now.  USTR's announcement yesterday may indicate that we will soon see an actual panel process completed: United States Trade Representative Michael Froman today announced that the United States is proceeding

Investor-state dispute settlement is a complex, difficult issue. Reasonable people can disagree on it. I've come out against it, but I see why people would be for it. However, when people do support it, I wish they would get the law and the facts right.  It doesn&

CETA, the Canada-EU trade deal under negotiation, is well ahead of the TTIP in terms of its progress towards a final text.  How is it faring in terms of politics?  The European Parliament was debating it yesterday.  Here's what they report: Hopes and fears for the EU-

I've been watching the telemedicine industry with great interest.  As with online education, I think there is great potential to offer medical services online.  Not all of them, of course, but certainly many types of consultations could take place this way.  If governments allow it, that is. If

Is it time to talk about the possibility of Scotland leaving the UK, and the implications for international economic law?  Polls are showing that it could really happen.  Maybe it will, maybe it won't.  But I figure I should do this post now, because if the vote is

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

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