In our YJIL article on the Seals dispute "Permitting Pluralism", Jo Langille and I argued that the TBT Agreement is not designed to apply to measures dealing with intrinsic moral principles of right and wrong; many of its provisions seem to address instrumental risk regulation, and the ordinary

Some readers have noticed my tweets during the AB hearing today on Seals.  I wanted to mention that I'll be blogging my blow-by-blow and analysis of the day in a few hours right here-after some needed sleep  The whole afternoon was focused on the issue of whether the

From the OECD: Due to the retirement of the incumbent, the OECD seek an individual  for the role of Head, Investment Division within the Directorate of Financial & Administrative Affairs (DAF) reporting to the Director and Deputy Directors and leading a team of 40 lawyers and economists.  In the first

I'm intrigued by the measure at issue in the California Dormant Commerce Clause case I mentioned the other day. If I understand it correctly, based on the complaint, here's how thing went.  First, the California voters passed a referendum requiring that egg producers in California use

From a letter written by a group of U.S. Senators: Dear Secretary Vilsack and U.S. Trade Representative Froman: We commend your past work to fight the growing geographical indication (GI) restrictions promoted by the European Union (EU). This trade barrier is of great concern to dairy and other

From the Washington Post: Americans rely on cheap chicken and eggs, the products of super-sizing livestock operations while squeezing costs. Farmers pack animals into tiny, crowded and dank pens, leaving hens with scarce room to extend their wings, let alone move around. There is a balance to be struck between

This is from the U.S. third party submission in EC - Seal Products: 7. ... Article 2.1 of the TBT Agreement requires a two-step analysis: (1) whether the challenged technical regulation creates a detrimental impact on imports of like products; and (2) whether the detrimental impact stems exclusively from

This is from Jeff Schott of the Peterson Institute: Consideration should be given to invoking GATT Article XXI, which provides exceptions for national security reasons from rights and obligations under the World Trade Organization (WTO), for example. Invoking this WTO exception would allow across-the-board actions against Russia without prior notification

While I was hanging out at the ELSA WTO Moot Court All-American regional round at AU law school yesterday, a DC trade lawyer said something interesting: Switzerland almost never participates in WTO disputes, even as a third party.  That sounded familiar, but I thought I'd look up the