Almost all WTO dispute panels exceed their statutory time limits. This is often seen to indicate a more general problem for panels to manage their tasks. The time required varies considerably across panels however, suggesting that they do not face the same problems. To shed light on these...

This study contributes to the debate concerning the appropriate role of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) in in WTO dispute settlement. Its distinguishing feature is that it seeks to address this relationship in light of the reason why the parties have chosen to separate their...

This paper investigates the design and implications of international investment agreements. These are ubiquitous, potent and heavily criticized state-to-state treaties that protect foreign investment against host country policies. We show that optimal agreements cause national but not global...

It is often claimed that investment treaties will dissuade host countries from phasing out foreignowned CO2-intensive production. This paper uses a very simple economic framework to examine how such a problem might be alleviated through treaty reform, including increased carve-outs from...

Halting the ongoing global loss of biodiversity will require extensive phase-out of harmful production. A significant share of the affected production will be foreign-owned, and can therefore potentially be covered by investment treaties. These treaties are sometimes alleged to dissuade host...

Protecting biodiversity will require the phase-out of harmful production at a large scale. However, some of these stranded investments will be foreign-owned, and can therefore be protected by the more than 2,600 investment treaties that are in force worldwide. These treaties' compensation...

A sizeable literature analyzes the appropriate interpretation of FRAND commitments for standard-essential patents. With few exceptions, the literature disregards international dimensions, despite the fact that most standards are used in international markets. This paper uses a simple economic...

This paper surveys the law and economics literature on WTO dispute settlement. As a background, we first briefly lay out main features of the legal framework, and discuss possible roles of a dispute settlement mechanism. We then discuss the two main themes in the empirical literature on dispute...

We propose a model of trade agreements in which contracting is costly, and as a consequence the optimal agreement may be incomplete. Inspite of its simplicity, the model yields rich predictions on the structure of the optimal trade agreement and how this depends on the fundamentals of the...