Simon Lester

As mentioned here, the recent Appellate Body findings on likeness in the Philippines - Spirits decision seem to mean that competitiveness is the key to the "likeness" analysis, even under GATT Article III:2, first sentence.  Here's what we said about this issue in our DSC

The U.S. appellant's submission is here:  http://www.ustr.gov/webfm_send/3225  Here's one issue I'll be watching during the appeal: 73. In reaching its conclusion that Section 907(a)(1)(A) accords less favorable treatment to imported clove cigarettes than to

From the editors of the Yale Journal of International Law: For over 40 years, the World Bank’s International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) has offered investors and states a unique arbitration mechanism, which trades off diplomatic protection on behalf of investors in return for commitments by

Blogger Matt Yglesias is shocked by the different U.S. tariff rates for toys and dolls: You probably did not realize that the official legal position of Marvel is that contrary to the general thematic content of the Marvel Universe, mutants are not people. A recent Radiolab podcast brings the

From a recent opinion piece by Jagdish Bhagwati: The US has been establishing a template for its PTAs that includes several items unrelated to trade. So it is no surprise that the TPP template includes numerous agendas unrelated to trade, such as labor standards and restraints on the use of

The Antigua Observer reports on the reaction of Mark Mendel, one of Antigua's lawyers in the WTO gambling dispute, to the Justice Department opinon on online gambling noted the other day: Reacting yesterday to the US assistant attorney general’s view on the matter, Antigua’s counsel Mark

The Australian government has posted a response to the Philip Morris notice of arbitration in the Plain Packaging BIT claim.  In addition to a brief discussion of substantive issues, Australia has offered some jurisdictional arguments: 29. The Australian Government objects to the jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal (by way of

From the NY Times: The Justice Department has reversed its long-held opposition to many forms of Internet gambling, removing a big legal obstacle for states that want to sanction online gambling to help fix their budget deficits. Although the opinion dealt specifically with lottery tickets, it opened the door for

From today's Philippines - Spirits decision: 119. While in the determination of "likeness" a panel may logically start from the physical characteristics of the products, none of the criteria that a panel considers necessarily has an overarching role in the determination of "likeness" under

Christian Tietje and Karsten Nowrot have posted a short policy paper discussing the legal issues surrounding the treatment of China as an NME.  Here's an excerpt: In light of these findings, it thus appears – at least from a theoretical legal perspective – in principle very well admissible that some