The commitments entered into in the WTO Telecommunications Agreement include a fairly elaborate set of principles designed to encourage and protect competition in this newly liberalising market. This paper analyses these commitments, to see first of all what they mean for the telecommunications...

The mechanism of Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) allows private foreign investors to challenge government measures before an ad hoc international arbitral tribunal. ISDS has been in existence for a long time. Yet recently this mechanism has proven very controversial, notably in the...

For several years now, the European Parliament has been calling for better enforcement of environmental and labour provisions in the EU's FTAs. Recently, the topic entered the political limelight within Member States. Private stakeholders and academic observers have pointed out weaknesses in the...

The EU’s weak promotional policy towards sustainability in its free trade arguments isup for revision. Labour and environmental standards need to be tightened. They weregiven a boost on balance by a remarkable panel ruling of January 2021 in the longstandingEU–Korea labour dispute....

Remedies in international law present an intriguing challenge: what happens if a sovereign state refuses to comply with its obligations, even after an international adjudicatory body has ruled in its disfavour? The absence of compulsory enforcement arguably means that international law as a...

The commitments entered into in the WTO Telecommunications Agreement include a fairly elaborate set of principles designed to encourage and protect competition in this newly liberalising market. This paper analyses these commitments, to see first of all what they mean for the telecommunications...

Food occupies a central role within the World Trade Organization (WTO), certainly where litigation is concerned. By way of illustration, a cursory read of WTO disputes initiated by Members to date reveals the existence of a veritable dispute settlement 'menu': WTO tribunals have entertained...

At first glance there seem to be few opportunities for private parties to raise objections to government regulation based on World Trade Organization (WTO) law. The WTO still appears to be largely a forum for governments to negotiate or litigate. In fact, there are various ways in which private...