The conventional wisdom, delivered before anyone could really ponder the fine print of the Greek debt deal, is that Tsipras surrendered to the creditors in a humiliating defeat.  His referendum and prior tenacity in negotiations proved futile,according to the predominant account that has emerged in the media and the

This is from a submission by a number of WTO Members who are skeptical of allowing non-violation and situation complaints -- through the removal of the current moratorium on those complaints -- under the TRIPS Agreement: Non-violation and situation complaints are unnecessary to protect any balance of rights and obligations

This is from Fredrik Erixon of Brussels think tank ECIPE: Thirdly, it is difficult to find economic justifications to put copyright concerns in the top league of priorities. Copyrights are already much longer than is economically motivated. There is not an efficient system for global registration and transfers of copyrights;

The canon of interpretation ejusdem generis states that where a listing of particular persons or things is FOLLOWED by a general term, the general term must refer to the same kinds of persons or things previously listed. In other words, the general term is limited by things ejusdem generis -

I wish there were a lot less talk of the TPP leading to massive job losses or job gains, and instead people said more sensible things like this, from Ted Moran: But economists are taught—as a matter of theory—that trade agreements cannot be expected to create a greater

We discussed what Australia's Productivity Commission thought of ISDS back here.  Now they have something more to say, but I couldn't do anywhere near as good a job explaining it as Esme Shirlow did over at the Kluwer Arbitration Blog.  Here's an excerpt, but

In his book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty establishes a fact that many people have not suspected. Whereas many suspected the confirmed fact that a gap has opened up after the seventies between the top 10 percent and average income earners, many did not suspect that the gap

I've always assumed that when you have an international investment treaty, which sets out obligations that states have to follow (and are subject to legal claims when they do not), this is public international law.  That is the case even if the "judges" hearing the claim

People keep asking me what I think of the TPP.  Given that, aside from a few leaks, I haven't seen the text, I'm a little unsure how to answer.  It kind of depends what's in it.  Nonetheless, I offered some preliminary thoughts here.  An

I wanted to mention two new books on WTO law.  The first I've been reading; the second is in the mail and I'll read it soon. The one I've been reading is A History of Law and Lawyers in the GATT/WTO: The Development