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Simon Lester

"Tolerating" Zeroing under International Law

I know that not everyone reads the comments, so I thought I'd pull something out of the comments on a previous post by Marc Benitah on the Kosovo ICJ decision. In our brief back and forth there, Marc pointed me to a statement by Judge Simma in his

Trade in Legal Services, Country by Country

The Economist reports on the globalization of legal services, with a number of countries highlighted: China, Brazil, Hong Kong: In China and Brazil foreign firms have flourished by offering advice on international law, but they cannot provide legal representation in local courts. (An exception is Hong Kong, which has recently

Bullfighting, Seal Products and the WTO

Reuters reports: Lawmakers dealt the death blow to bullfighting in Catalonia on Wednesday, outlawing the centuries-old blood sport for the first time in a mainland region of Spain. The result of 68 in favor, 55 against the ban was expected, since the Catalonian parliament had cast preliminary votes in December

Trade in Everything: Prisoners (Again)

The proposal to send certain California inmates to Mexican prisons doesn't seem to have gone anywhere, but it appears that there is, in fact, a market for trade in prison services, as the Economist reports: THE border between Belgium and the Netherlands can be easy to miss: a

Trade in Everything: [Censored]

A headline from law.com: "Copycat Sex Toys Stimulate ITC Patent Fight": At first glance, a recent complaint at the U.S. International Trade Commission -- Devices Having Elastomeric Gel and Components Thereof -- sounds like a typical high-tech patent dispute. That is, until you get to the

USTR Ron Kirk on WTO Trade Enforcement

From Reuters: But in the same news conference, Kirk also made clear his dislike for WTO litigation, which can take years to resolve and often produce mixed results. "My guiding principle is that where we can get issues resolved through direct negotiations, no matter how difficult they are, we&

The First Labor Complaint Under a Trade Agreement

From a speech today by USTR Ron Kirk: So today I am announcing that the Obama Administration will file a case against Guatemala under our trade agreement with Central America and the Dominican Republic, for apparent violations of obligations on labor rights. This is the first labor case the United

The Investor-State Challenge to Uruguay's Anti-Tobacco Law

Via a Luke Peterson tweet, I see that Uruguay is planning to weaken its anti-tobacco law (see this old post for more), in response to a Phillip Morris investment treaty challenge: Uruguay's government yesterday said it would tweak the legislation, or possibly draft a new law, to fend

The U.S. Position on Free Trade and the Internet

In Foreign Affairs, this is from Betsy Gelb and Emmanuel Yujuico (of IPE Zone): Another example of a failed effort to apply a largely American vision of technology to a non-U.S. cultural environment involves the Internet search giant Google. In January, after the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights

Cell Phone Radiation Labeling and Trade Agreements

As you may have heard, San Francisco recently passed a law requiring that cell phones must have labels telling consumers how much radiation they emit: Imposing roughly the same cautionary standards for cellphones as for fatty food or sugary soda, [San Francisco] — never shy about its opinions — voted on Tuesday