Today at the Seal Products Appellate Body hearing, the discussion focused on Canada’s claim that there is a philosophical consistency test included in the law of the WTO. Canada’s argument is that under the law of the WTO, the EU should not be able to regulate to protect

Canada and Norway have been attacking the EU anti-cruelty ban by focusing, at this stage exclusively, on its exceptions.  Of what relevance are these to TBT 2.2 (as opposed to 2.1)? I think the answer lies largely in the US-Tuna II case.  Recall that the AB

This afternoon( left just before the coffee break) saw the panel struggling with how within the text of TBT 2.2 to frame or imagine the EU measure, which is animated by moral concerns about seal welfare and about complicity with excessive   suffering of seals, but balanced by other concerns.

AB Division Member Chang has raised the issue that there is one estimate in the Cowie Report that suggests largest amount of seal products that entered the EU at the time the EU measure was imposed were for processing and transit, which are permitted under the scheme.  He is pressing

So if the Appellate Body were to complete the analysis and do its own assessment of the EU measure under TBT, what might its concerns be?Some hints come from a few questions from the Division yesterday afternoon.One concern seemed to be whether the EU measure is being effectively

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

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