Well, I am not talking about two lovers, but the currently pending negotiation on the “Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).”  The United States and the European Union, representing the world’s most advanced (and perhaps most open) economies, still cannot get a trade deal done between themselves.  As we

We talked about the "prudential exception" here, here, and here.  I have a short law journal article coming out on this soon, where I basically argue that the exception is badly worded, nevertheless probably works as an exception, but could and should be redrafted in future trade agreements

This is related to Simon’s earlier post. Matthew Dalton from Wall Street Journal raised an interesting hypothesis regarding the controversial investor-state dispute settlement mechanism under the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).  What if decisions of an investment tribunal and a domestic court on the same subject-matter diverge or

From the European Commission: EU trade officials will today start analysing responses to a public consultation on investment protection and ISDS in TTIP, a new EU-US trade deal currently being negotiated. The survey closed yesterday, almost four months after its launch in March. European citizens and interest groups replied in

I'm always on the lookout for good controversies on discrimination outside the WTO context, just to see how others do it.  From the Economist, here's a potential case: BAVARIANS have long been cranky about having to pay road tolls every time they drive through Austria, say,

Edited by Debra Steger, former Director of the Appellate Body Secretariat and now a law professor: With a membership of 160 countries, the World Trade Organization (WTO) is the international organization with responsibility for the global rules of trade between nations. Its stated principal function is to ensure that trade

That's one of the issues in an ongoing NAFTA Chapter 11 case.  Pharmaceutical maker Eli Lilly is making an Article 1110 expropration claim related to the invalidation of certain of its patents in Canadian courts (it also makes an Article 1105 minimum standard of treatment claim).  More background

Our co-blogger Bryan Mercurio published an excellent policy brief at the World Health Organization (WHO) Bulletin. (“International investment agreements and public health: neutralizing a threat through treaty drafting”) This is his conclusion: “International investment agreements need not pose a threat to legitimate health measures. The addition of limitation clauses such

Last week, Andrew posted about the possibility of an exception to investment obligations, as part of the TTIP.  I'm interested to see where exceptions of this sort can take us in terms of preserving policy space, but I think we should also consider the obligations themselves as part