This article introduces the concept of "international development disputes". It argues that despite the well-acknowledged vagueness of 'development' as an operative legal concept, there exists a set of international legal differences (primarily international economic disputes, but not...

International investment tribunals often use the language of ‘rights' to characterize foreign investors' claims against host states, evoking the language of human rights and, in some cases, appearing to conflate the two concepts. We investigate the cognitive framing of the relationship between...

The 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (CSICH) was not intended to have legal repercussions in international trade. Nevertheless, ICH may interact with trade regulation under various scenarios. The CSICH “Representative List” inscribes numerous ICH elements...

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, signed in February of 2016, is an ambitious effort to set high standards on a ‘mega-regional' level. This paper examines the TPP's investment provisions with a focus on their most controversial dimension: the extent to which they constrain the...

More than 3000 international investment agreements (IIAs) provide foreign investors with substantive protections in host states and access to binding investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). In recent years, states increasingly have sought to change their treaty commitments through the...

This article, part of a special issue of Law and Contemporary Problems on subsidiarity in international law and governance (edited by Markus Jachtenfuchs and Nico Krisch), examines from positive and descriptive perspectives the actual extent of subsidiarity-like provisions and processes in the...

This article provides a critical perspective on the impact of two particular international legal constructs - Geographical Indications (GIs) and Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) - on cultural diversity, with a focus on culinary culture. An examination of the legal attributes of these...

Why do international and domestic legal actors employ and even apply international soft law sources, although these sources are not legally binding? In this chapter, after surveying different ways in which soft law is employed and applied in international and domestic courts, we offer several...

The importance of the institutional dimensions to international trade law over the last decades is brought to light in this volume of previously published articles. The collection focuses on the World Trade Organization (WTO), the most important institution in international trade, and includes a...