Simon Lester

This is from Roger Alford at Opinio Juris: despite the assumption that international trade disputes must be resolved before the WTO DSB, the existence of broad umbrella clauses in BITs present a promising vehicle for enforcing investment commitments in trade agreements. ... umbrella clauses in BITs could create a private right

From the The Canadian Council on International Law: Combustion: Energy, Resources and Environmental Issues Igniting International Law November 13-15, 2014 - Ottawa, Ontario The Canadian Council on International Law is pleased to announce its 43rd Annual Conference: "Combustion: Energy, Resources, and Environmental Issues Igniting International Law". Practitioners and

Here's an interesting Dormant Commerce Clause case that might come before the U.S. Supreme Court, as described by a Cato colleague of mine: One of the several failures of the Articles of Confederation was the incapacity of the central government to deal with trade disputes among the

This is from the U.S. answers to questions from the arbitrator in the Clove Cigarettes Article 22.6 proceeding: 88. Company documents from Kretek International (“Kretek”), which occupied 97 percent of the market for clove cigarette imports in the United States, substantiate that the current market for clove cigars

The Appellate Body has issued some "guidelines" for employees (AB judges, secretariat staff, interns) to follow after they have left: POST-EMPLOYMENT GUIDELINES IN RESPECT OF FORMER APPELLATE BODY MEMBERS, FORMER APPELLATE BODY SECRETARIAT STAFF, AND FORMER INTERNS AT THE APPELLATE BODY SECRETARIAT The Appellate Body expects the individuals

As everyone has no doubt heard by now, the U.S., Japan and the EU recently won a big victory over China in the Rare Earths case at the WTO. The WTO panel ruled that various Chinese export duties and quotas violated WTO obligations and were not justified by any

This is from economics reporter Peter Martin: And now Australia has said no to an ISDS in its free trade agreement with Japan. The agreement will be better and simpler because of it. Some details of the agreement are here, but the full text is not out yet. Australia is

The European Parliament's Committee on International Trade held a workshop on ISDS on Tuesday. I had a little trouble viewing the recorded video, but try these links. I was particularly interested in the response given by Rupert Schlegelmilch of the European Commission to the question, "Where is

A guest post by Aik Hoe Lim and Bart De Meester [1]: Recent disputes concerning Article 2.2 of the TBT Agreement – in particular US - Tuna II (Mexico) and US - Clove Cigarettes – have focused attention on measures that, even when not discriminatory, may constitute barriers to trade in

From the FT last week: Mr De Gucht said the negotiations to create what would be the world’s biggest free trade zone would be at risk if an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism was not part of the proposed deal. “I doubt it,” he responded when asked if the pact