John Jackson and the GATT's Transformation

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 401-403
Author(s):  
STEVE CHARNOVITZ
Keyword(s):  
International Organizations ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Law Students ◽  
International Organization ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Trading System ◽  
Trade Law ◽  
The World ◽  
Ann Arbor

John Jackson's long, fruitful association with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was unique in the annals of international organizations. His 1969 book, World Trade and the Law of GATT, became the Baedeker for government officials, practitioners, and academics seeking an overall understanding of the trading system or an explanation of a particular GATT provision. Yet the uniqueness of Jackson's relationship to the GATT was not just his foundational scholarship; every international organization in the twentieth century spawned a scholarly community. The uniqueness came from his role as a teacher attracting graduate law students from around the world who traveled to Ann Arbor to study with him and then returned to their countries to take on leadership roles in international trade. These decades of students inspired by Jackson and educated by his synoptic understanding of trade law enhanced Jackson's influence on the GATT in a way that has no parallel in other agencies.

Meta-Regulation of Private Standards: The Role of Regional and International Organizations in Comparison with the WTO

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Yoshiko Naiki
Keyword(s):  
International Organizations ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Regulatory Function ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
Trade Law ◽  
International Trade Law ◽  
Private Standards ◽  
The World ◽  
One Step

Abstract The rise and proliferation of private standards have been recognized in international trade law, and various concerns have been raised. Existing literature analyses how the World Trade Organization (WTO), particularly the SPS (Sanitary and Phytosanitary) Committee and the TBT (Technical Barriers to Trade) Committee, have responded (or cannot respond) to the proliferation of private standards. This paper goes one step further by focusing specifically on the meta-regulatory function performed by regional and international organizations other than the WTO. This paper sheds light on three types of governance techniques that can serve as meta-regulatory activities in relation to private standards by regional and international organizations: (1) governance by delegation; (2) governance by information; and (3) governance by soft law. This paper analyses features of these governance techniques and considers the relation between these governance techniques and the WTO's approach.

Responsibility of the WTO for Breach of an International Obligation under the Draft Articles on Responsibility of International Organizations

2013 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
pp. 197-242
Author(s):  
Noemi Gal-Or
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
World Trade ◽  
International Organization ◽  
Legal Personality ◽  
International Obligation ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
International Responsibility ◽  
International Legal Personality

SummaryThis article challenges the argument that the World Trade Organization (WTO) is devoid of executive or governing functions and, hence, immune from the regime set out in the International Law Commission’s 2011 Draft Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations (RIO). A brief drafting history of the RIO, clarification of the terminology associated with matters of international responsibility, and two hypothetical examples illustrating the potential for WTO responsibility set the stage for the article’s main argument. The author examines the WTO’s nature by analyzing its constituent law, its sui generis mandate and functions, its international legal personality, and its own use of terminology in presenting itself to the world. Critical analysis of RIO Articles 64 (on lex specialis) and 10 (on the existence of a breach of an international obligation), and their application to the WTO, completes the argument. The author thus refutes both the notions that (1) the WTO is exclusively member driven and, hence, not an executive, governing organization but a sui generis entity and (2) the WTO is therefore unable to breach an international obligation and thus immune from the RIO regime. The article concludes that, while a breach by the WTO of an international obligation may be exceedingly rare, it nonetheless — as any international organization — comes within the ambit of the RIO regime. The WTO should therefore consider adjusting its internal rules accordingly.

World Trade Law and Renewable Energy: : the Case of Non-tariff Measures

2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 500-518 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Howse
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Trading System ◽  
Trade Law ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
World Trading System ◽  
Grid Operation ◽  
The Eu

AbstractOver the last two decades, trade and environment issues have typically been a source of intense controversy and conflict in the world trading system. Renewable energy, however, represents an area where we believe that freer less-distorted trade and environmental protection have the potential to be mutually reinforcing. Historically, electrical energy itself has not been traded across borders, with some exceptions (Canada and the US and in the EU). However, with the de-monopolisation of electricity in an increasing number of jurisdictions, and the unbundling of functions such as generation, grid operation, transmission, and retailing as well as the development of financial instruments such as futures and options contracts for energy, the structure of the entire market is starting to change, complicating the analysis under WTO law. This article aims to raise questions and suggest areas where domestic and international policymakers may need to consider undertaking further analysis.

Lawful Remedy or Illegal Response? Resolving the Issue of Foreign Subsidization Under WTO Law

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Victor Crochet ◽  
Marcus Gustafsson
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
World Trade Organization ◽  
World Trade ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Fair Competition ◽  
Trade Law ◽  
International Trade Law ◽  
The World ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Do So

Abstract Discontentment is growing such that governments, and notably that of China, are increasingly providing subsidies to companies outside their jurisdiction, ‘buying their way’ into other countries’ markets and undermining fair competition therein as they do so. In response, the European Union recently published a proposal to tackle such foreign subsidization in its own market. This article asks whether foreign subsidies can instead be addressed under the existing rules of the World Trade Organization, and, if not, whether those rules allow States to take matters into their own hands and act unilaterally. The authors shed light on these issues and provide preliminary guidance on how to design a response to foreign subsidization which is consistent with international trade law.

scholarly journals WTO REFORM: BACKGROUND, CONDITIONS AND PROSPECTS

2016 ◽  
pp. 239-248
Author(s):  
T. M. Isachenko
Keyword(s):  
World Trade ◽  
Market Access ◽  
Innovative Development ◽  
International Division ◽  
Trading System ◽  
Multilateral Trading System ◽  
The World ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Main Regulator ◽  
The Multilateral Trading System

Maximizing the benefits of international division of labor and sharing the achievements of innovative development is possible only with the existence of a strict system of rules and regulations. Such system would enable fair regulation of international trade, ensure the transparency of market access and make it possible to challenge discriminatory measures, as well as to maintain certain measures to protect the interests of domestic producers. The creation of the multilateral trading system has started with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and was subsequently developed in the documents and codes, the decisions of the negotiating rounds. Since 1995, a set of rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) became the basis of the multilateral trading system. All rules are worked out at the multilateral level. However, in recent years the negotiations within the WTO has slowed down, that affected the quality and speed of decision-making on key issues of global development. That provokes the discussion it on a certain crisis of the WTO as the main regulator of world trade, and therefore the need to provide both institutional and substantive reforms.

Legitimation Contests

2019 ◽  
pp. 29-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus Dingwerth ◽  
Antonia Witt
Keyword(s):  
International Organizations ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Time Change ◽  
International Organization ◽  
The World

In this chapter, we lay out the theoretical framework that informs our book. We argue that international organizations are legitimated in processes of contestation in which a plethora of actors seeks to define what distinguishes a ‘good’ from a ‘bad’ international organization. In doing so, the actors draw on as well as shape the normative environments in which international organizations are embedded. These environments, in turn, depend on the world political contexts of their time. Change in what we call the terms of legitimation therefore comes from two ends: first, from the dynamics of interaction among those who take part in legitimation contests (‘change from within’); and second, from material or ideational developments that support or challenge the persuasiveness of individual normative frames (‘change from the outside’).

13. International Trade and Environmental Protection

2021 ◽  
pp. 775-812
Author(s):  
Alan Boyle ◽  
Catherine Redgwell
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
International Trade ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Current Policy ◽  
Trade Law ◽  
The World ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter looks at the relationship between the World Trade Organization (WTO) and international trade in terms of international environmental law. Twenty-five years after the WTO system came into operation it appears that neither trade law nor environmental law have trumped each other. Rather, there has been a process of accommodation which is still ongoing. The chapter ends by making some conclusions on the arguments presented in this book and the issues currently being faced. The current policy of encouraging free trade cannot always be made environmentally friendly and this will always be the case. The problem becomes clear if we consider climate change. Free trade and globalisation by nature exacerbates the difficulties of regulating environmental issues. In addition, one of the key problems with sustainable development as a concept is that there has been too much emphasis on development, and not nearly enough on sustainability, then a policy of promoting free trade is part of that problem.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 315-322
Author(s):  
Douglas A. Irwin
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Trade Policies ◽  
Trading System ◽  
The World ◽  
World Trading System ◽  
And Function ◽  
Open Markets ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Role And Function

This chapter concludes that international trade and trade policies are frequently the object of condemnation rather than approbation. It explains how the condemnation are often the result of misconceptions about the benefits of international trade, the impact of trade policies, and the role and function of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Though the last few decades have been marked by a general reduction in trade barriers, the matter is not settled because the pressures to weaken the commitment to open markets never abate. The chapter emphasizes on difficult policy choices at the intersection of trade policy and climate change that could hold key battles over the world trading system in coming years. It also highlights the several benefits of world trade and the contribution of trade to the welfare and prosperity of billions of people around the world.

scholarly journals China’s ‘Going Global’ Policy: Transnational Production Subsidies Under the WTO SCM Agreement

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 841-863
Author(s):  
Victor Crochet ◽  
Vineet Hegde
Keyword(s):  
World Trade ◽  
Direct Investment ◽  
Global Policy ◽  
Trade Law ◽  
International Trade Law ◽  
The World ◽  
World Trade Organization Agreement ◽  
Belt And Road ◽  
Production Subsidies ◽  
Shed Light

ABSTRACT As China is increasingly ‘going global’, foreign direct investment under its Belt and Road Initiative is becoming heavily scrutinized. One of the concerns is that Chinese companies establishing themselves in third countries would be unfairly advantaged by the financing they receive under China’s expansionist strategy. This financing gives rise to a situation that had long been described as ‘unrealistic’, in which a government subsidizes a firm outside of its territory. When such a firm’s products are exported to third countries, could such financing be disciplined under the World Trade Organization Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures? Should such financing, which enhances development in the receiving countries, be disciplined at all? The authors shed light on these issues and provide a preliminary guidance on how to structure this problem under international trade law.

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