International Economic Law and Policy Blog

Webinar: “ASEAN and the Reform of Investor-State Dispute Settlement: Global Challenges and Regional Options,” 29 November 2022, 5pm (SGT)

This is from the Centre for International Law at the National University of Singapore:

The Centre for International Law of the National University of Singapore cordially invites you to attend a virtual book launch and conference under the theme “ASEAN and the Reform of Investor-State Dispute Settlement: Global Challenges and Regional Options.” The event will bring together academics and government representatives from selected ASEAN and ASEAN-plus countries to share their views on ISDS reform from an ASEAN perspective as well as on the present and potential future of the UNCITRAL ISDS reform process on the whole. The starting point for the discussion would be the recently published book ASEAN and the Reform of Investor-State Dispute Settlement: Global Challenges and Regional Options (Edward Elgar, 2022), co-authored by N. Jansen Calamita and Charalampos Giannakopoulos.

Please see the detailed programme here. 

You may register your attendance directly here.

Date and place: 29 November 2022, on the Zoom platform

Time: 5-7:30pm (SGT) / 9-11:30 am (GMT) / 10am-12:30pm (CET).

International Economic Law Virtual Book Talk Series 2021 - Upcoming Sessions

The American Society of International Law's International Economic Law Interest Group is hosting a summer virtual book talk series again this year and so far has held two conversations featuring recent and upcoming books published by Greg Shaffer and Esme Shirlow.  Each book talk event is one-hour long and held by Zoom.  Registered participants receive a book excerpt in advance of the conversation and are invited to join in the discussion following an introduction by the book's author(s) and comments from a distinguished discussant.  

Three more talks in the series are coming up that may also be of interest to readers of this blog:

• Wednesday, July 14 at 2pm ET - James Bacchus and Inu Manak present their book, The Development Dimension: Special and Differential Treatment in Trade.  Regis Simo will provide comments.
• Thursday, August 19 at 6pm ET - Ntina Tzouvala presents her book, Capitalism as Civilisation.  Olabisi Akinkugbe will provide comments.
• Friday, September 10 at 12pm ET - Sergio Puig presents his book, At the Margins of Globalization: Indigenous Peoples and International Economic Law.  Commentator TBA.

Registration (free) for all three talks is here: https://forms.gle/JkAsjU2bAWHRkDmF8.

Financial University Organizes Conference on Russia and the WTO

On 19-20 May 2015, the Financial University of the Russian Federation held its first international conference on the topic of "WTO Law in the Legal System of the Russian Federation: Problems of Application and Teaching."  To my knowledge, this was the first international legal conference held to address the Russian Federation's 2012 accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the current role of the Russian Federation in the WTO.  The Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation (Finuniversitet) is a leading publicly-funded institution of higher professional education (whose roots go back to the early 20th century).  The conference was supported by a grant from the U.S. Russian Foundation for Economic Advancement and the Rule of Law (USRF).

The conference consisted of over two dozen presentations regarding international trade law and policy and the trade law of the Russian government. 

Among the main lecturers on the first day of the conference were: Jan Bohanes, senior counsel of the Advisory Centre on WTO Law (Geneva), who lectured on constructed normal value in antidumping; Professor Steve Charnovitz of George Washington University Law School (Washington, D.C.) who lectured on the WTO-plus provisions in the Russian WTO accession package; Professor Anatoly Kapustin, Head of the Legal Comparative Research Centre who lectured on Russia and WTO Law; Professor Vasilka Sancin of the University of Ljubljana who lectured on models for an appellate mechanism in investor-state dispute settlement; Anait Smbatyan, Senior Expert at the WTO Expertise Center (Moscow) who lectured on WTO implementation; Eric M. Solovy, partner at Sidley Austin LLP (Washington, DC) who lectured on the obligations of and caselaw under the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the WTO Agreement Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM).  Excellent additional presentations were made by Mark G. Pomar, President of USRF and by Professor and Deputy Rector Dmitry Sorokin of Finuniversitet.

On the second day of the conference, two parallel workshops were held featuring scientific presentations by leading academics and practitioners from Moscow and other Russian cities.  Several presentations addressed the challenges and opportunities of teaching international economic law to Russian students.  In addition, Professor Alexey N. Ruzhin of the Russian Foreign Trade Academy gave a lecture on the enforcement of international trade and customs law in the Russian economy.

Organizing a major global conference on WTO law is a difficult task and Financial University Associate Professor Igor Shulyatyev is to be commended for planning and carrying out a landmark conference on key policy and technical challenges facing the Russian government in its WTO membership.  In the future, the Financial University should consider building on its success and holding a second annual conference in 2016. 

ASIL IEL Conference in Minnesota

The ASIL International Economic Law Interest Group conference on "International Economic Law in a Time of Change: Reassessing Legal Theory, Doctrine, Methodology and Policy Prescriptions" is coming up on November 18-20, at the University of Minnesota Law School.  I see lots of big IEL names and interesting paper topics on the agenda, which is here.

If you can't make it, you can view the live stream here:  http://www.ustream.tv/channel/international-economic-law-in-a-time-of-change.  There is also a facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/?sk=ru&ap=1#!/pages/Biennial-Conference-of-the-ASIL-2010-MJIL-Symposium/145764852104616.

Various other links related to the conference are here, here and here.

Society of International Economic Law (SIEL) Membership and Conference Registrations Now Open

Registration for the Inaugural Conference of the Society of International Economic Law is now open at www.sielnet.org. The conference will be held on 15-17th July at the Centre on Trade and Economic Integration at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva. Those interested in attending are encouraged to register early, as depending on interest, spaces may have to be limited in due course. The draft conference program, including presentations and keynotes from over 80 distinguished scholars in the field, can be found at the website.

In addition, SIEL welcomes all those involved in the discipline of international economic law to register as SIEL members. Members receive discounted rates for the Inaugural Conference, discounted rates from key publishers, and access to the members-only area of our website (in development), among other benefits. Details on the online registration process can be found at www.sielnet.org.

Some Upcoming Trade Events in Geneva

From Jalal Alavi, three upcoming trade events in Geneva:

• World Trade Report 2007
  Tuesday, 4 December 2007
  11.30 am
  WTO Headquarters – Centre William Rappard
  Conference Room II
  Programme
  Chair: Keith Rockwell, Director
  Information and Media Relations
  11.30 -11.45 Introductory Remarks
  Director-General,
  Pascal Lamy
  11.45 -12.30 Presentation of Report
  followed by a discussion

• Professor Joost Pauwelyn, "New Trade Politics after the Doha Round" at the Graduate Institute of International Studies (HEI), next building to the WTO premises. The presentation will start at 18h30, Wednesday 5th of December. http://www.hei.unige.ch/apps/agenda/?language=e

• The Report of the Warwick Commission: "The Multilateral Trade Regime: Which Way Forward?"  The meeting will take place on Thursday, 6 December 2007 at 11.00 a.m. to 12 p.m. in CRI at the Centre William Rappard.