Government contracts are subject to a number of legal rules that have no private sector analogs, and that have received virtually no attention from law and economics scholars. This paper explores these rules from an economic perspective, with special attention to the leading modern case on the...

The non-violation nulli cation or impairment doctrine is among the more unique and perplexing features of WTO law. We examine the scope and application of the non-violation doctrine in the GATT/WTO, and identify two striking differences in the observed usage of non-violation claims relative to...

Litigation against corporate defendants under the Alien Tort Statute is largely an effort to enlist multinational business interests in a laudable effort to reign in the human rights abuses of repressive regimes. The hard question is whether the costs of this now extensive litigation (and...

Existing formal models of the relationship between trade policy and regulatory policy suggest the potential for a regulatory race to the bottom. WTO rules and disputes, however, center on complaints about excessively stringent regulations. This paper bridges the gap between the existing formal...