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Clinton Era Trade Documents

Previously confidential documents from the Clinton era are being released now and then.  I'm keeping an eye out for items that relate to international economic law.  Here are two recent ones from the Loewen NAFTA case: http://www.clintonlibrary.gov/assets/storage/Research-Digital-Library/formerlywithheld/batch7/2010-0021-F-1.pdf http:
Simon Lester 27 Oct 2014 1 min read

Speaking Clearly on ISDS?

From a speech today by President-elect of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker before the European Parliament: Investor-to-state disputes I took note of the intense debates around investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations. Let me once again state my position clearly, that I had
Simon Lester 22 Oct 2014 2 min read

OGEL & TDM Call for Papers: Special Issue on Renewable Energy Disputes

From OGEL and the TDM journal: Oil, Gas, and Energy Law Journal (www.ogel.org) and Transnational Dispute Management (www.transnational-dispute-management.com) invite submissions for a joint Special Issue on Renewable Energy Disputes. Renewable energy production is nothing new: windmills have been used to produce wind-based energy and dams have
Simon Lester 22 Oct 2014 2 min read

What Do Americans Think of Mandatory Country of Origin Labelling?

I was struck by this sentence from a Global Trade Watch blog post, in reaction to yesterday's WTO panel report in the Article 21.5 proceeding in U.S. - COOL: The COOL policy was created when Congress enacted mandatory country-of-origin labeling for meat – supported by 92 percent
Simon Lester 21 Oct 2014 3 min read

Mesa Power v. Canada NAFTA investor-state arbitration: public viewing of the hearing

Many of you will be familiar with Mesa Power as the NAFTA case that concerns the local content requirements in Ontario's feed-in-tariff (FIT) programme for renewably generated electricity, which were found to violate WTO rules in the recent Canada-Renewable Energy rulings.  The NAFTA claim raises far broader issues
Rob Howse 20 Oct 2014 1 min read

The Amended COOL Measure Was Not So Cool, a WTO Compliance Panel Said

Here is the compliance (DSU Article 21.5) panel report as well as a summary of findings.  Overall, the panel followed the Appellate Body’s approach in the original COOL dispute.  The panel concluded that the amended COOL measure actually “has increased the original COOL measure's detrimental impact
Sungjoon Cho 20 Oct 2014 3 min read

Where to publish in international law-a not entirely unbiased pitch for the London Review

My co-authors and I are close to signing off on our manuscript analyzing the WTO Seal Products rulings.  Coming from the very happy Howse/Langille experience with the Yale Journal of International Law, I think we will again submit to the US student-edited law journals-also the nature of the piece.
Rob Howse 17 Oct 2014 1 min read

What Is Investment Protection For?

This is from U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman: investment protections are ... intended to safeguard against a host of abuses, including discrimination, repudiation of contracts, and expropriation of property without due process of law ... It surprises me how little analysis of this issue exists. From what I can tell, the
Simon Lester 17 Oct 2014 1 min read

Call for Papers: 4th Conference of the SIEL Postgraduate and Early Professionals/Academics Network

The Postgraduate and Early Professionals/Academics Network of the Society of International Economic Law has issued a call for papers for its fourth conference: 4th Conference of the Postgraduate and Early Professionals/Academics Network of the Society of International Economic Law (PEPA/SIEL) 2015 Milan, 16-17 April 2015 Organised by
Simon Lester 17 Oct 2014 2 min read

The Nature of "Serious Prejudice" Cases

In the comments on Sungjoon's post from the other day, Brett Williams said something really interesting: There are some aspects of this Cotton litigation which ought to be celebrated as great achievements of the system. ... Secondly, it was the first time (going all the way back to 1948)
Simon Lester 14 Oct 2014 2 min read

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The Section 301 Surge Continues: Investigating the Adoption/Enforcement/Administration of Forced Labor Import Bans

This Section 301 investigation intends to pressure all sixty named trade partners (even, inexplicably, including Canada and Mexico) to adopt similar enforcement procedures. This announcement is highly problematic for the four reasons I address below.
16 Mar 2026 4 min read

The Section 301 Surge Is Upon Us: Investigating Excess Capacity and Production

The first of a large batch of expected Section 301 investigations has arrived, as USTR announced yesterday that it was initiating investigations on acts, policies, and practices of various countries/economies "relating to structural excess capacity and production in manufacturing sectors."
12 Mar 2026 3 min read

Debunking the "Hyperglobalization" Trade Policy Myth

Policy is often shaped by narratives, and recently there has been a bipartisan effort to create a narrative that, starting in the early 1990s, globalization and free trade went too far.
03 Mar 2026 8 min read

Guest Post: Are President Trump’s New Section 122 Tariffs Legal?

This is a guest post from Bryan Riley and Joe Bishop-Henchman. Bryan is Director of the Free Trade Initiative at the National Taxpayers Union; Joe is Executive Vice President at the National Taxpayers Union Foundation President Trump has issued new 10% tariffs, shortly after raised to 15%, based on Section
24 Feb 2026 6 min read

Section 122 as a (Partial) Replacement for the IEEPA Tariffs

Apparently, this is the era of dusting off old international economic policy statutes and figuring out what they mean and how they work. After the Supreme Court's ruling today in Learning Resources, holding that "IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs," we are now
20 Feb 2026 5 min read

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