For the few of you who are not regular readers of the Durham, North Carolina based "News & Observer" newspaper, here is a link to an op-ed that my Duke Law colleague Barak Richman and I just wrote on Leonardo DiCaprio's new movie "Blood Diamond&

For those who will be in Brussels on January 23, there is an interesting seminar entitled, "Are developing countries deterred from using the WTO dispute settlement mechanism?"  Here is a link with more info and here is a brief description: The dispute settlement mechanism (DSM) is the backbone

Chavez is planning on causing Venezuela to nationalize all energy production assets.  See the CNN story.  See Chris Borgen's take at opinio juris.  There'll be a lot to fight about with respect to compensation. As we hav epointed out earlier, Venezuela does not have a BIT

See Peter Spiro's story on Opinio Juris about the big retailers' (Walmart, Tesco, etc.) Global Social Compliance Program.  I had not heard of this one.  It is interesting that the retailers would join together to set standards for their suppliers.  Is it intended to take the wind

Some optimism from a US administration figure that the increasing attractiveness of agro-based fuels will bring progress in Doha. Of course this over-simplifies the issue, and the catches are many. I could've posted this as a trade law "brain-teaser", but see this interesting discussion paper, co-authored

On December 29, President Bush took the final step, authorized by legislation signed December 20, to provide MFN treatment to Vietnamese goods.  At the same time, the U.S. Commerce Department is discussing a special textiles monitoring arrangement, applicable only to Vietnam.  This raises a good question about the scope

I was recently asked whether Israel's large excise tax on automobiles, applied at the border, raises WTO law issues.  Israel has no domestic production of automobiles, so the tax de facto only applies to imports.  However, it is by definition non-discriminatory, because there is not domestic production to

Wednesday's FT reports that Angela Merkel is seeking greater regulatory harmonization between the US and EU, as Germany begins its presidency of the EU.  This initiative is alternatively referenced as "transatlantic co-operation", a "transatlantic partnership", and a move toward a "transatlantic single market&

From J alal Alavi:King's College of London University is organizing its first International Graduate Legal Research Conference. Information on the Conference, including its "Call for Papers" is available through http://www.iglrc.com/