Natural resources account for 20% of world trade, and dominate the exports of many countries. Policy is used to manipulate both international and domestic prices of resources, yet this policy is largely outside the disciplines of the WTO. The instruments used include export taxes, price...

This paper aims to help Asian trade negotiators by examining the processes and results of the Uruguay Round. Analysts argue that trade negotiations are based on mercantilistic rules. But the actual outcome of the Uruguay Round suggests that trade bargaining was not based on strict reciprocity....

Decisions by arbitral tribunals in investment treaty cases do not have formal precedential status. Yet certain issues recur, and prior decisions at the least provide guidance to later tribunals. The content of the most frequently invoked substantive treaty provisions - the obligations to accord...

The future is drying out. By 2025, up to 40% of the world's population could be suffering of water scarcity, and yet, the role of law in the governance of water resources seems to be mostly spared of critical scrutiny. At the heart of the matter is our conception of water. Traditionally, water...

The WTO Agreement is said to be unconcerned with trade effects. Instead, WTO member countries incur state responsibility on the basis of their acts alone. This responsibility is reinforced by the irrebuttable presumption contained in DSU Art. 3.8 and longstanding practice, which together...

In recent years, debates on international trade policy have focused on the role of the World Trade Organization and the two big political and economic powers - the USA and the EU. In this paper, the author, an expert in trade policy, argues that this focus must change. Large supra-national...

One of the risks that international economic law is facing is the inability to give consistent answers to actual needs. Coherence, consistency and predictability of international law rules are particularly relevant in a global world and market, where private actors are increasingly gaining...

The embedded liberalism thesis, a major component of the trade policy literature in political science, argues that governments can build support for free trade by compensating economically those hurt by trade, usually with welfare or education policies. This strategy depends, though, on...