In the 1990s, three Pacific island countries, Tonga, Vanuatu, and Samoa, applied to join the World Trade Organization (WTO). However, after negotiating for years to join and with membership almost a formality, Vanuatu in 2001 and Tonga in 2006 suspended the process of their accession. Although...

The Australia-US Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) provides an illustration of the outcomes that countries with relatively little bargaining and economic power can expect from an FTA with the US. It also serves as a warning of how even an economically successful developed country may end up...

This chapter discusses what is a treaty and what is its significance in international law; the process by which treaties are formed and the legal effects of treaties at various stages of their formation; the nature, validity and legal consequences of reservations to treaties; the process of...

This chapter discusses the role and importance of the law on state responsibility within the wider context of international law; the sources of law on state responsibility, and in particular the significance of the ILC Articles on State Responsibility; the structure of the normative regime...

This chapter discusses the nature of international dispute resolution and the obligation to settle disputes peacefully; the means by which international arbitral and judicial bodies are established; the impacts of new judicial and quasi-judicial bodies and tribunals upon international law; the...

This chapter provides some background on the theoretical underpinnings of the citizen's right to participate in the government of his or her state. It then considers the extent to which these underpinnings can be extended to employees in their relationship with their employer firms, and the...

This chapter focuses on the substantive aspects of the exception for Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) in relation to goods under Article XXIV of GATT 1994, examining in detail the conditions with which FTAs must comply in order to fall within the exception. These conditions relate to the elimination...

This chapter addresses the substantive aspects of the exception for Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) in relation to goods under Article XXIV of GATT 1994, beginning with an explanation of its structure and scope. The chapter goes on to examine in detail the conditions with which PTAs must...

Most modern preferential trade agreements (PTAs) contain formal state– state dispute settlement mechanisms, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) will be no exception. The addition of Mexico and Canada to the TPP negotiations brings the total number of TPP parties to 11,...

In this chapter, we explain and evaluate the AUSFTA primarily from an Australian perspective, given that most countries will be in a more or less analogous position to Australia when negotiating an FTA with the US. AUSFTA provides an illustration of the outcomes that countries with relatively...