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Simon Lester

A Few Thoughts on the Role of the WTO/AB Secretariats in WTO Disputes

Following-up on Joost's post about his new paper with Krzysztof Pelc on the role of the WTO and Appellate Body Secretariats in WTO disputes, I wanted to offer some brief thoughts. Here's the first one: More seriously, I sort of agree with them, in the sense

Guest Post: GAFA’s Global Investment Tribunal: Is it Going to Stay? Call for a research partner

This is from Marcin J. Menkes of the Warsaw School of Economics: Although none of the GAFA companies – Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple – or other major tech giant has taken the first step, publicly, to establish a world investment tribunal, the question to already ask, is whether such an arbitration tribunal

Tom Graham Clarifies My Earlier Tom Graham Clarification

In the comments section of my blog post earlier this week, Tom Graham commented as follows: My statement as reported by Bloomberg was not inadvertent. It expressed my position accurately: "I have not yet decided [whether I will stay after December 10], and I am watching developments." No

Are Social Media Trade Wars Inevitable?

A Washington Post article from last week, which includes the heading "TikTok Rise Could Signal End To Western Web Dominance" in the print version, describes a Chinese social media platform called TikTok as follows: TikTok has quickly become one of America’s most popular mobile apps, a flashy,

Conference on Socially Responsible Foreign Investment under International Law

Católica|Lisbon School of Law and Católica Global School of Law will host the international conference on Socially Responsible Foreign Investment under International Law. The event will take place at the Lisbon campus of the Catholic University of Portugal next 24 and 25 of October. Entrance is free and registration

Clarifying Tom Graham's Status on the Appellate Body

Last week, Bloomberg ran a story about Appellate Body Member Tom Graham which stated that: ... While Graham’s term ends on Dec. 10, panel members in the past have stayed on to finish WTO cases they’re involved in. If he resigns, the seven-member body would no longer have a

The U.S. - Japan Deal: More Than Just "In Principle" Now?

I mentioned a possible U.S.-Japan trade deal here, described a couple weeks ago as an "agreement in principle". Things seem to have progressed a bit, with the Trump administration just issuing the following "Presidential Message to Congress Regarding the Notification of Initiation of United States–

Guest Post: Reflections on the first application of the “dominant and effective nationality” test in international investment arbitration

This is a guest post from Gabriela Sánchez of the Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá Last September 3rd, the Permanent Court of Arbitration issued the Final Award on the case Michael Ballantine and Lisa Ballantine v. Dominican Republic. The case was governed under UNCITRAL (2010) arbitral rules and under the

My Quick Take on the Trade Talk In Last Night's Democratic Debate

The Democratic debates have (thankfully!) been narrowed from 20 to 10 candidates. Many of them had a chance to weigh in on trade policy at the debate last night. Here's what they said: STEPHANOPOULOS: Welcome back. We want to turn now to national security and the foreign policy

The Appellate Body and the Role of Precedent

One of the issues raised by the United States in its critique of the Appellate Body is the role of precedent. How much weight should be given to past cases? Is the Appellate Body being too deferential to its prior rulings? Is there a difference between the "cogent reasons&