Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in International Economic Law

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
International Economic ◽  
International Trade ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Multinational Enterprises ◽  
Government Procurement ◽  
Digital Revolution ◽  
Economic Law ◽  
International Economic Law ◽  
Transboundary Trade ◽  
Trade And Investment

While international trade and investment is still dominated by larger multinational enterprises (MNEs), small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly reaching out beyond their traditional domestic habitat. A significant number of SMEs today are engaged in transboundary trade and investment and in the wake of the digital revolution the phenomenon of ‘born global’ SMEs can be increasingly observed. In addition, many SMEs enter the global economy indirectly via global value chains. International economic law, with its traditional focus on MNEs and their interests, is only slowly waking up to this new reality. At the same time, it is increasingly recognized that the internationalization of SMEs provides the key to creating more sustainable and inclusive global economic growth. The 2015 UN Sustainable Development Goals, for example, expressly call for the facilitation of increased access for SMEs to international trade and investment. This book undertakes a first attempt at systematically analysing the interaction between SMEs and international economic law. The analysis covers a broad spectrum of international trade and investment law focusing on issues of particular interest to SMEs, such as trade in services, government procurement, and trade facilitation. Salient regional and transregional developments are taken into account, including the implications of the TPP and the TTIP negotiations for SMEs. Close attention is also devoted to the concern of many states that further liberalization of international trade and investment would unduly restrict the regulatory space necessary to protect and promote the legitimate interests of domestic SMEs.

Legal Issues in the Promotion of Microtrade: From the Perspective of International Economic Law

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Jaemin Lee ◽  
Y.S. Lee
Keyword(s):  
International Economic ◽  
International Trade ◽  
Basic Concept ◽  
Government Procurement ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Economic Law ◽  
Legal Implications ◽  
International Economic Law ◽  
Aid For Trade

AbstractThis article provides a legal analysis of microtrade from the perspective of international economic law with the introduction of the basic concept and the mechanism of microtrade. The article analyzes whether the proposed microtrade scheme complies with relevant rules of international trade under the GATT/WTO system. The article also discusses the facilitation of microtrade through government procurement in the context of Aid for Trade and examines the applicability of the WTO Government Procurement Agreement, which has been recently amended, to microtrade with consideration to potential legal implications.

20. International economic law

2019 ◽  
pp. 525-550
Author(s):  
Gleider Hernández
Keyword(s):  
International Economic ◽  
International Trade ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
International Investment ◽  
International Investment Law ◽  
Economic Law ◽  
International Economic Law ◽  
The World ◽  
Post War

This concluding chapter discusses international economic law. When discussing ‘international economic law’ one is addressing the international regimes that regulate international trade, investment, and economic development. The multilateral and bilateral treaties in these areas have become the focal point for the global economy today. International economic law developed rapidly since the end of the Second World War, when the 1944 Bretton Woods Accords established the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the World Bank), placing financial institutions at the heart of the post-war settlement. Meanwhile, the law on international trade grew around the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT), but today centres on the World Trade Organization in Geneva. International investment law has no equivalent overarching institution, but rather exists as a dense web of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) which have emerged in the last three decades.

A Future Agenda for Crafting ‘Athena’s Treaties’ on Trade and Investment for Sustainable Development

2021 ◽  
pp. 324-328
Author(s):  
Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger
Keyword(s):  
International Economic ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Regulatory Elements ◽  
Single Measure ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Process Innovations ◽  
Economic Law ◽  
International Economic Law ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Trade And Investment

This final chapter briefly discusses the volume’s key findings, including that many trade and investment agreements contain provisions with potential to contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It discusses the implications of the findings for international economic law more broadly, recognizing that no one single measure can provide ‘the solution’ to all trade- and investment-related sustainable development challenges and that many different provisions may be needed throughout the treaty, addressing potential impacts as they arise. It also highlights areas for further development, particularly in terms of ‘process’ innovations, such as sustainability impact assessments (SIAs). Further, the chapter canvasses areas of need for further legal research, which may be needed to monitor and propose improvements in State attempts to address regulatory elements in SIA and other processes. Finally, this chapter highlights the contribution of the volume to promoting sustainable development in trade and investment policy, serving as a useful tool for more sustainable international economic law and policy-making in the future.

scholarly journals International Economic Law and Disintegration: Beware the Schmittean Moment

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-345
Author(s):  
Alessandra Arcuri
Keyword(s):  
International Economic ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
World Order ◽  
International Economic Order ◽  
Economic Order ◽  
Nation State ◽  
National Sovereignty ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Economic Law ◽  
International Economic Law

Abstract In his influential book, Straight Talk on Trade, Dani Rodrik provides a cogent critique of the existing international economic order and concludes as follows: ‘So, I accept that nation-states are a source of disintegration for the global economy.’ This article critically engages with the idea that the nation-state is a legitimate force of disintegration of the international economic order, with particular attention to trade and investment agreements. In times of raising authoritarianism, it is crucial to reflect on some of the limits of the nation-state and on the necessity to develop alternative paradigms for integrating economies and societies. Against this background, this article posits that we should beware of the risk of a ‘Schmittean moment’. This term is used to refer to a major shift toward an ideal of unfettered national sovereignty as the chief paradigm to re-orient the international (economic) order. Under such ideal, any international normative benchmark is brushed away by an allegedly more intellectually honest ‘political’ dimension, which can find its realization only in the decisionist state. To understand the risk of a ‘Schmittean moment’ it is important to recognize that the move toward more nation-state is partly animated by some legitimate concerns over the existing international legal order, such as those underpinning the analysis by Dani Rodrik. This article articulates a two-fold critique of the idea that an expansion of national sovereignty is going to achieve a better socio-economic world order per se. The first critique is internal, showing that the nation-state does not possess intrinsic characteristics to facilitate democracy, equality, and sustainability. The second is external and focuses on the necessity to look reflexively at the goals of the system of international economic law, to re-imagine it as capable to address questions of inequality and environmental degradation.

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Munro
Keyword(s):  
International Economic ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
International Trade ◽  
Emissions Trading ◽  
Mutual Recognition ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
Economic Law ◽  
International Economic Law ◽  
Technical Regulations

Chapter 10 summarizes the main conclusion of this book that the objects traded within emissions trading schemes—namely, carbon units—are subject to the disciplines of international economic law in a series of complex and asymmetrical ways. The significance of this conclusion is underlined by the volume and extent of prima facie inconsistencies exhibited by emissions trading schemes with international economic law and identified in this book. While the evidence available and justifications in respect of some of these inconsistencies suggests that they might be saved by certain public policy-related exceptions in international economic law, it is equally apparent that many would not be shielded. Chapter 10 also passes comment on the potential means by which jurisdictions might inoculate their emissions trading schemes from the reach of international economic law, such as by insulating schemes from external transactions, denuding carbon units of proprietary status, and framing international trade in carbon units as a matter of mutual recognition of respective jurisdictions’ technical regulations or standards under international economic law.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Munro
Keyword(s):  
International Economic ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Emissions Trading ◽  
Economic Law ◽  
International Economic Law ◽  
Treaty Interpretation ◽  
Mitigate Climate Change ◽  
Principal Parts ◽  
Trade And Investment

This book addresses whether and how emissions trading schemes to mitigate climate change are subject to the network of treaties comprising the international trade and investment regime, collectively referred to as international economic law. Chapter 1 introduces the broad structure and content of the book, which is divided into three principal parts. Part I, comprising Chapters 2 and 3, sets out the approach of the book, insofar as it involves initial process of treaty interpretation to determine the scope and content of relevant aspects of international economic law (including any relevant interaction with the international climate regime), followed by a subsequent process of applying the resulting interpretations to carbon units and the aspects of emissions trading schemes that affect their trade and investment in ways which attract the scrutiny of international economic law. Part II, covering Chapters 4–7, then seeks to ascertain whether carbon units are subject to international economic law by evaluating whether they qualify as ‘goods’/‘products’, ‘services’, ‘financial services’, and ‘investments’. Having determined that carbon units are, to varying extents, subject to international economic law, Part III (comprising Chapters 8 and 9) assesses the consistency of emissions trading schemes and their rules affecting carbon units with that body of law.

scholarly journals International economic law and the quest for universality

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 401-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence Boisson de Chazournes
Keyword(s):  
International Economic ◽  
International Law ◽  
Final Analysis ◽  
Economic Law ◽  
Trade Law ◽  
International Trade Law ◽  
International Economic Law ◽  
Investment Law ◽  
Enabling Clause ◽  
Trade And Investment

AbstractThe quest for universality in international economic law has met many obstacles. This article begins from the proposition that there are various ways to conceive of universality in international law, for example whether the rules are accepted widely among states (omnipresence) or whether they are broadly coherent (generality). Homing in on trade and investment law, the article assesses how each of these areas has functioned as a testing ground for these different conceptions. An in-built quasi-universality characterizes international trade law with the WTO as a seemingly centralized universal institution. Such universality, however, has often been achieved through differentiation of rights and obligations (e.g., the Enabling Clause and regional trade agreements). In investment law, attempts at universalization through the construction of centralized institutions have failed. Nevertheless, certain common standards have emerged in this fragmented regime. There is also a debate around the use of the MFN clause as a universalizing tool and renewed efforts to universalize investment law are afoot. More generally, it is clear that there is little appetite for codification of international economic law, and that states wish to control its content through the conclusion of treaties. In the final analysis, this article asks whether it is time to conceive of universality differently, and particularly whether equity and collective preferences should be a more central part of the quest.

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