Economic theory has made considerable progress in explaining why sovereign countries cooperate in trade. Central to most theories of trade cooperation are issues of self-enforcement: The threat of reprisal by an aggrieved party maintains the initial balance of concessions and prevents...

This paper is a contribution to the literature on rational design of trade agreements. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an incomplete contract among sovereign states. Incomplete contracts contain gaps. Ex post, contractual gaps may leave gains from trade unrealized; they may create...

This paper constitutes an attempt to reframe and eventually deflate the ongoing “compliance-vs.-rebalancing” debate which has permeated WTO scholarship for the last 10 years. Our main criticism concerns the substance of the entire debate. We find that scholars on both sides of the...

The recent financial crisis has put enormous strains on the global systems governing international finance and trade. These two important international regulatory systems, created after World War II to promote growth and stability in the global economy, were put to the test in ways unprecedented...

Depoliticisation of investment dispute settlement is considered to be one of the principal reasons and advantages of investor-State arbitrations. This paper considers the added value that the depoliticisation vocabulary brings to the resolution of modern challenges. First of all, equating...

The chapter discusses a multi-sourced equivalent norm (MSEN) situation arising out of the parallel breach of an investment treaty and the WTO agreement. On the basis of a number of case studies, it considers how MSENs are affected by secondary rules of state responsibility that prima facie...

The financial crisis of 2008-09 has cast palpable doubt on the relevance of the current legal framework governing trade in services for financial crisis prevention and management. The crisis revealed the limited utility and effectiveness of services trade law in dealing adequately with the...