International Economic Law and Policy Blog

Sign in Subscribe

Simon Lester

Guest Post: Suspending Investor-State Arbitration During the Pandemic

This is a guest post from law professor Ben Heath: There is growing concern in some quarters that international investment law and arbitration will limit national governments’ ability to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic fallout. Last week saw the rollout of two related but distinct non-governmental initiatives

The Pool of Arbitrators for the MPIA

From the European Commission: Today, the EU and other WTO members have formally notified the ‘Multi-party interim appeal arbitration arrangement’ (MPIA) to the World Trade Organization (WTO). This notification marks the start of the application of the MPIA to disputes arising between the participating WTO members. Annex 2 of the

John H. Jackson Moot Court Competition: Call for Case Authors

ELSA International invites proposals from prospective case authors to write the Moot Court Case for the 19th edition of the John H. Jackson Moot Court Competition, formerly known as the ELSA Moot Court Competition on WTO Law. The Competition is a simulated hearing of a World Trade Organization dispute settlement

A Short History of Buy American Content Requirements in SBA Loans

A couple weeks ago, Steve Charnovitz posted about a domestic content requirement in the U.S. Paycheck Protection Program being run by the Small Business Administration. We discussed the issue a bit in the comments, but I was curious about the origins of the requirement. I asked a Cato intern

Guest Post: Are the ‘Lester Principles’ too ‘neo-liberal’ for a WTO consensus?

Guest Post by Prof. Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann, European University Institute, Florence In his Post of 19 April 2020, Simon Lester made three proposals in order to satisfy the most significant US concerns with the WTO Appellate Body in ways acceptable for the rest of the WTO membership: ‘(1) limiting the scope

U.S. Says It Won't Comply in DS505 (Supercalendered Paper)

Here is a communication from Canada dated April 16 related to the Supercalendered Paper case: The Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) adopted the recommendations of the panel and Appellate Body in US – Supercalendered Paper (DS505) on 5 March 2020. Pursuant to Article 21.3 of the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU), the

WTO Dispute Settlement Misunderstandings: How To Bridge the Gap Between the United States and the Rest of the World

When the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations was completed, the world trading system was transformed in several important ways: A formal institution was created, as the World Trade Organization (WTO) replaced the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) (which had been operating as a de facto institution); the

Trade Policy in the 2020 Presidential Campaign

In the coming months, we will start seeing political ads for the 2020 presidential campaign. Trade policy is likely to feature prominently, especially in certain industrial states. The Trump campaign posted a video recently that perhaps gives us a flavor of their message. The trade part starts around 17:50.

Call for Papers: When International Courts and Tribunals Defer to States

This is from PluriCourts: Concepts and Methods Workshop: Call for Papers. We invite paper proposals for a PluriCourts-iCourts "Concepts & Methods" Workshop on the topic When International Courts and Tribunals Defer to States, to be held in Oslo, Norway, on 24-25 November 2020. International Courts and Tribunals (ICs)

New U.S. Export Restrictions on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Last week, President Trump issued a "Memorandum on Allocating Certain Scarce or Threatened Health and Medical Resources to Domestic Use," which including the following passage: On March 25, 2020, the Secretary of Health and Human Services designated under section 102 of the Act 15 categories of health and