The global health crisis that came to be known as the COVID-19 pandemic and started to sweep across the world in early 2020 revealed many vulnerabilities in the economic, social, and political fabric underpinning what much of the world had come to accept as normal. In ways that we are still...

Timely and equitable access to vaccines and other health technologies is vital in effectively responding to pandemics and treating other communicable diseases. This paper shows how countries might overcome real or purported intellectual property (IP) barriers to regional COVID-19 vaccine...

Cross-border paperless trade is increasingly important to generate economic gains in a digitalised economy. Several developing and least developed countries will need to modernise their domestic laws and regulations to facilitate cross-border electronic transmissions, particularly to promote...

Tobacco companies have expressed concern that Australia's plain cigarette packaging initiative breaches international trade obligations. This article begins by providing a background to cigarette packaging. It then examines developments worldwide and in Australia that have led to this...

Under existing food labelling rules in Australia, palm oil can be classified generically as a ‘vegetable oil' on labels. The Community Affairs Committee of the Australian Senate is currently conducting an inquiry into the Food Standards Amendment (Truth in Labelling — Palm Oil) Bill 2010...

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...