The WTO Telecommunications Agreement of 1997 marked a new beginning in international regulation. For a number of significant players, like the EU and the United States, the Agreement essentially consolidated at the international level the liberalization movement to which they were already...

This article examines the treatment in the EU of trade secrets, which are not recognized in many EU Member States as intellectual property. The authors analyze the EU’s obligations under international treaties (notably TRIPS) and under European law (notably the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights...

Competition law enforcement in the EU and in most EU Member States follows an administrative model: decisions on the infringement and on the fine are taken by an administrative agency; when courts are called upon to review these decisions they traditionally leave a large measure of discretion to...

This chapter argues that the arguments that have traditionally been advanced in favor of a nondiscriminatory application of safeguard measures are not convincing within the regime of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Safeguards Agreement. Furthermore, if selective safeguards were plainly...

Recent case law suggests that the European courts are rethinking their position in respect of international law. On the one hand, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is extending its case law on the WTO, denying ‘direct effect' to all of its provisions, to other major international treaties,...

Enforcing international law remains problematic: what happens if a sovereign state refuses to comply with its obligations, even after an international adjudicatory body has ruled in its disfavour? The solution offered under the World Trade Organization (WTO) system has been to authorize the...

Recent case law suggests that the European courts are rethinking their position in respect of international law. On the one hand, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is extending its case law on the WTO, denying 'direct effect' to all of its provisions, to other major international treaties,...

The current system of remedies in the WTO provides Members with a choice between trade compensation or retaliation. There is a problem in that trade compensation is only possible with the consent of the non-complying country and thus often remains theoretical, while retaliation has the...