The FT reports on how ISDS is holding up the CETA negotiations: The EU struck a political agreement on a trade accord with Ottawa last year but the deal has become mired in negotiations over investors’ rights. Berlin fears that German standards of environmental and consumer protection could be undermined

Following up on my blog post of earlier today, this is from Tilman Krueger: the EU actively contributes to rule development in the WTO also as a litigant in the context of WTO dispute settlement and in addition to its immediate, case-specific interests. Two examples for such behaviour will

Joost raises an important systemic issue in a new paper: This contribution makes an empirical assessment of the role of precedent in WTO dispute settlement. As an imperfect proxy it counts cross-references between the 108 Appellate Body reports issued between 1996 and 2013. Using basic tools of network analysis

The failure to agree yesterday at the WTO on the adoption of the Bali Trade Facilitation Agreement is widely being misrepresented in the media as the collapse of Bali and a new or renewed crisis for the WTO system.  True to their venerable habits of ultimatum diplomacy and pushing around

I haven't read any of the submissions or the opinion in the Yukos investment arbitration, which resulted in the biggest award ever -- $50 billion! -- and has been making headlines in the past week. But from the articles about the case, what struck me is that the claimaints were

This is a synopsis of Professor Michael Trebilcock's recent SIEL lecture (written by Michael): In my recent Robert Hudec public lecture to the Society for International Economic Law at its biannual conference in Bern, Switzerland (“Between Theories of Trade and Development: The Future of the World Trading System,

I'm a little late to the party on the most recent Argentine debt crisis.  I hadn't been paying much attention, but someone asked me to speak about it at a conference in October, so I thought I better try to figure it out!  There are a

Arvind Subramanian has always been one of my favorite trade commentators.  Whatever topic he takes on, he has great insights.  This short piece he wrote on the current WTO trade facilitation/food security issue with India is no exception. He explains how policy changes in recent years have led to

From Gujarat National Law University: Gujarat National Law University, one of India's premiere law schools, is proud to announce the 7th Edition of its flagship event, The GNLU INTERNATIONAL MOOT COURT COMPETITION. (GIMC 2015) GIMC is one of the very few moot court competitions in the world where

This is from Robert Basedow, a PhD candidate at LSE: ... It is helpful to distinguish between the substantive and procedural provisions under typical international investment agreements. The substantive provisions enumerate the rights of investors and states under these agreements, whereas the procedural provisions regulate how substantive provisions can be enforced.