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Toward best practices for trade-security measures J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2024-03-14 Harlan Grant Cohen
The global economy is increasingly being weaponized. Citing security concerns from traditional defence to economic competitiveness, health emergency, and climate crisis, states are turning to sanctions, tariffs, export controls, investment screening, and subsidies. But while economic statecraft is becoming common, rules remain scarce. Questions about notice, duration, proportionality, harm minimization
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Whither security? The concept of ‘essential security interests’ in investment treaties’ security exceptions J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2024-02-29 Caroline Henckels
Unlike the WTO agreements, most investment treaties’ security exceptions do not further define the concept of ‘essential security interests’, creating significant uncertainty. Securitization theory illuminates conceptual problems associated with an expansive approach to security, security’s role in justifying extraordinary deontic powers, and securitization’s contingency on intersubjective agreement
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Depoliticizing money: how the International Monetary Fund transformed central banking J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2024-02-29 Kanad Bagchi
After the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, the politics of money and central banking came to the forefront. Calls for repoliticizing central banking towards social goals such as inequality, poverty, and climate change have gathered much traction. Economists and political scientists have called for revisiting the long-lost developmental mandates of central banks and for understanding them as social institutions
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Border carbon adjustment compliance and the WTO: the interactional evolution of law J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2024-02-23 Laurie Durel
International law and its understanding can evolve outside of treaties, but little is known about the elements that can explain these changes. This paper looks at the debate on border carbon adjustment (BCA) compatibility with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and argues that international law depends on the actors’ perceptions, which can change over time. It applies an interactional international
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Transatlantic leadership in an era of human rights-based export controls J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2024-02-22 Nina M Hart, Christopher A Casey
In 2021, the USA and the European Union (EU) expressed an interest in deepening their cooperation with each other and other international actors on export controls to address evolving security risks, including the misuse of dual-use technologies to violate human rights. This interest presents an opportunity to probe the potential for US–EU leadership, as a stated intention of these actors, in developing
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Making international trade work for sustainable development: toward a new WTO framework for subsidies J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2024-02-22 Elena Cima, Daniel C Esty
Government subsidies for fossil fuels, agricultural production, and fisheries amount to trillions of dollars per year. This funding harms economic inefficiency, disrupts trade, and actively exacerbates the global environmental and climate crises. Moreover, the scale of these subsidies far exceeds the support provided to industries and activities that contribute to the transition towards a low-carbon
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Compliance politics and international investment disputes: a new dataset J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2024-02-16 Nicola Strain, Runar Hilleren Lie, Yuliya Chernykh, Even Espelid, Taylor St John, Malcolm Langford, Isabella Cuervo-Lorens, Daniel Peat, Maria Florencia Sarmiento, Coen Ripson, Maxim Usynin, Faadhil Adams, Tarald Gulseth Berge, Laura Létourneau-Tremblay, Prevy Parekh, Szilárd Gáspár-Szilágyi, Morr Link, Lara Eguia, Øyvind Stiansen, Emilia Onyema
The ability to ensure compliance with investor-state arbitral awards is often regarded as one of the strengths of the international investment regime. Yet, there have been few systematic studies of compliance to assess the extent to which states have actually complied with adverse investor-state compensation awards. This paper presents a new dataset that enables empirical research on compliance with
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Critical insecurities? The European Union’s strategy for a stable supply of minerals J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2024-02-07 Victor Crochet, Weihuan Zhou
The green transition is creating exponential needs for critical minerals. As demand currently exceeds supply for many of these minerals, governments worldwide are devising strategies to secure stable procurements of the minerals they lack as well as to ensure that they reap the benefits of their own natural wealth. The European Union (EU) is in a difficult position in this regard due to limited domestic
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Contradictions and tensions in the way the USMCA regulates energy J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2024-01-12 Guillermo J Garcia Sanchez
The international regulation of energy is complex, involving various legal frameworks such as economic agreements, environmental conventions, and dispute resolution mechanisms. These instruments often overlap and may not align, creating challenges for addressing energy-related issues. The United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) exemplifies these complexities. It addresses entitlements to natural
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International law in the China–Russian energy partnership: mapping the partnership-based relational approach J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2023-12-19 Yuanyuan Zhang
Over the past decades, the China–Russian energy partnership has become firmly established. Significant milestones such as the 2009 oil and the 2014 gas deals demonstrate the geopolitical impact of this partnership. The article finds that the China–Russian energy cooperation uses a partnership-based relational approach that eschews rulemaking by treaty. Instead, the legal framework of this partnership
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Towards a ‘security-centred’ energy transition: balancing the European Union’s ambitions and geopolitical realities J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2023-12-19 Anna-Alexandra Marhold
The European Union (EU) faces a pressing, multi-level energy crisis propelled by the perfect storm of Russia’s war in Ukraine and rapidly progressing climate change. As a result, the EU is scrambling to ensure it has sufficient energy supplies for the foreseeable future while reinventing its energy strategy in the long term. Since the EU is at a critical juncture for squaring EU energy security with
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Energy disciplines in PTAs between security and sustainability concerns: a comparative perspective J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2023-12-13 Ilaria Espa
This article aims at exploring the universe of energy disciplines included in preferential trade agreements (PTAs) and their evolution through the prisms of energy security and energy sustainability. It offers a comparative perspective by classifying relevant provisions according to their scope and coverage, their level of normativity and enforceability, and their innovative potential for driving a
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From guano to green hydrogen: food security and fertilizer disputes in international energy law J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2023-12-13 Oliver Hailes
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered energy and food crises, driven by demand for natural gas as fuel and fertilizer feedstock. By adopting a recent framework for analysing the diverse ways in which international law regulates energy transactions, I extend the category of end-use energy products to include food for human consumption, given the economic importance of dietary energy and the entangled
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Pro-Claimant bias in arbitrator selection J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2023-12-13 Tobias Traxler
Recent empirical studies have confirmed that arbitrator selection affects outcomes in investor–state arbitrations. This article builds on the existing literature, relying on 48 semistructured interviews with investor-state arbitration practitioners. It makes three novel claims: (A) sophisticated counsel nowadays will take factors beyond a candidate’s appointment record into account when selecting an
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ISDS 2.0: time for a doctrine of precedent? J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2023-12-12 Martin Jarrett
The reform process for ISDS at UNCITRAL is reaching its climax. Within the next few years, a treaty for ‘ISDS 2.0’ should emerge from this process. A key feature of ISDS 2.0 will be a new international court for resolving investor–state disputes. This court should include an appellate tribunal. A core function of this appellate tribunal will be to produce consistent case law, noting a common complaint
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Climate change and oil and gas production regulation: an impossible reconciliation? J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2023-11-17 Daria Shapovalova
Fossil fuel combustion is undeniably the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. In order to meet the Paris Agreement target of keeping global warming below 2°C, globally, a third of oil and half of gas reserves should remain unused from 2010 to 2050. In 2021, the International Energy Agency estimated that in the net-zero emissions scenario there is no need for fossil fuel exploration
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Energy justice in times of crisis: protection of consumers and market-based renewable energy investments J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2023-11-13 Anatole Boute
In response to the 2022 energy crisis, caused by the disruption of Russian gas supplies to Europe, the European Union (EU) emphasized the importance of accelerating the deployment of renewable energy to ensure supply security and lower energy prices. Paradoxically, renewable energy investments were also one of the main targets of the EU efforts to contain the hardship of the crisis. Based on the reasoning
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Beyond externalities: human rights as a foundation of entitlements over energy resources J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2023-11-12 Ginevra Le Moli
The question of human rights and energy has been traditionally framed as an analysis of limitations on energy transactions arising from substantive and procedural human rights. Whereas the negative externality framing of human rights sets safeguards against the adverse effects of energy transactions and thereby restrains how such transactions are conducted, it overlooks a more fundamental dimension
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‘These are my principles. If you don’t like them I have others.’ On justifications of foreign investment protection under international law J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2023-08-21 Fuad Zarbiyev
This article aims to show that the mainstream discourse of the international law of foreign investment protection has adjusted itself to changing historical circumstances in a way that brings to light its strategic and ideological character. It argues, in particular, that the justifications offered in defence of foreign investment protection under international law appear to have been pretextual rather
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Integrating non-binding labour standards in binding trade agreements: The ILO’s feedback loop J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2023-08-21 Desirée LeClercq
Much attention has been placed on how trade agreements integrate and benefit from a non-binding International Labour Organization (ILO) declaration. That declaration lists the fundamental labour principles to which all the ILO’s members, and thus the trade parties, have already consented. However, until now, it has been unclear whether and to what extent that integration, in turn, benefits the ILO’s
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The right to regulate and the interpretation of the WTO Agreement J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2023-07-25 Andrew D Mitchell
In contrast to international investment tribunals, World Trade Organization (WTO) adjudicators have been reluctant to acknowledge the inherent right to regulate under international law explicitly. Policy-based considerations arising from such a right have not been viewed as a standalone component under interpretive analyses in WTO dispute settlement. Instead, they have been integrated only to the extent
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Last year’s model? Investment arbitration, negotiation, and the gap between Model BITs and IIAs J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2023-06-08 Yoram Z Haftel, Morr Link, Tomer Broude
With more than 3000 international investment agreements (IIAs) worldwide, states negotiate similar agreements multiple times with numerous partners. Accordingly, many states have developed template agreements known as ‘Model bilateral investment treaties (BITs)’. Nevertheless, concluded IIAs commonly deviate from the corresponding Model BITs, albeit to varying degrees. Investigating this variation
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Anti-deforestation npr-PPMs and Carbon Border Measures: Thinking About the Chapeau of Article XX GATT in Times of Climate Crisis J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2023-05-15 Giulia Claudia Leonelli
This article enquires into the extent to which the elusive Chapeau of Article XX of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) may constrain the ability of regulating Members to tackle environmental externalities via unilateral regulatory action. It employs an analysis of recent European Union regulatory measures to assess the rationale of different ‘indicators’ of compliance with the Chapeau
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International Economic Law in the ‘Asian Century’ J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2023-05-12 Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann
The current non-compliance with United Nations (UN) and World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements protecting transnational public goods, military aggression among WTO members, violent suppression of human and democratic rights, global health pandemics, climate change, ocean pollution, overfishing, and other biodiversity losses reflects ‘governance failures’ (e.g. to limit ‘market failures’) and ‘constitutional
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WTO Rules for Trade with Disputed Territories J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2023-05-11 Olia Kanevskaia
The legality of trade with territories over which sovereignty is disputed has recently come to the forefront of policy and academic discussions due to emerging case law and escalating territorial conflicts. While considerations shaping the debate on economic activities with disputed territories are typically informed by concerns of international law, little is known about international trade and customs
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Managing Externalities in the WTO: The Agreement On Fisheries Subsidies J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2023-04-12 Bernard M Hoekman, Petros C Mavroidis, Sunayana Sasmal
By prohibiting subsidies that support illegal, unregulated, or unreported fishing activities and contribute to the unsustainable depletion of marine resources, the 2022 Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies (AFS) is the first World Trade Organization (WTO) treaty to recognize that a specific trade policy instrument can have adverse consequences for the global commons. We assess the AFS as such and through
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A Climate Change Carve-Out for Investment Treaties J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2023-03-07 Joshua Paine, Elizabeth Sheargold
This article responds to the growing risk of Investor–State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) claims arising from states’ measures to mitigate climate change, such as fossil fuel phase-outs. It proposes a carve-out that would cover measures that are adopted in good faith and have a reasonable causal nexus with reducing and stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions (e.g. measures ‘related to’ this aim). Depending
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Blockchain and its Applications: A Conceptual Legal Primer J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2023-03-04 Ross P Buckley, Anton N Didenko, Mia Trzecinski
Blockchain is a potent buzzword and a potentially transformative technology. Diverse businesses are looking to leverage this technology to reap its alleged benefits of increased efficiency, reduced costs, enhanced transparency, and improved traceability. Yet, significant confusion persists about the structure, utility, and applicability of blockchain technology. A clear understanding of what blockchain
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The WTO and Vaccine Supply Chain Resilience during a Pandemic J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2023-02-16 Chad P Bown
Cross-border supply chains and international trade enabled the manufacturing and delivery of billions of vaccine doses to inoculate the world against the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). At the same time, the pandemic revealed how the World Trade Organization (WTO) must change to become more useful in the face of a public health emergency. This paper describes the market failures—especially on the supply
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The WTO’S Contribution to the Challenges of Global Commons J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2023-01-26 Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Global trade can be an important part of the solution to modern global challenges, just as the rule-based multilateral trading system played an instrumental role in fostering peace and prosperity since its creation in 1947. Trade has been a lifeline for producing and accessing critical medical supplies from face masks to vaccines almost since the beginning of the pandemic; trade is also an important
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New (Paradigms In) International Economic Law J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2023-01-18 Andrea K Bjorklund, Gabrielle Marceau
Since the birth of the Journal of International Economic Law (JIEL) in 1998, the foundations of international economic law have undergone multidimensional changes. Emerging political and economic challenges have shaped international economic law into becoming inherently dynamic; not only have new frameworks developed for analyses of international economic relations, but novel social and environmental
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Platforms and Global Governance: Globalization on Steroids J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2023-01-14 Joel P Trachtman
Platforms constitute a novel context for social interaction. Physical distance makes little to no difference to interaction, and so the frequency and intensity of cross-territorial border interaction grow dramatically. This growth in interaction will be globalization on steroids. Platforms increase both collision among national rules (jurisdictional collision) and collision at the international level
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The Role of ICSID in International Economic Law J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2023-01-12 Meg Kinnear
The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes was established in 1966 as a facility for the resolution of international investment disputes. Today, it has 158 member states and has administered roughly 70% of all known investor-state cases. International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes has taken a leadership role in modernizing the procedures for investor-state dispute
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Corporate Power and Accountability in International Economic Law J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2023-01-11 Lucinda A Low
Over the past twenty-five years, States, international institutions, and private entities have attempted to rein in corruption and promote corporate social responsibility. Such efforts have produced mixed results but have led to greater international cooperation and the establishment of clear norms. Increasing the accountability of multinational corporate actors remains a challenge but depends upon
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Trade Agreements and Sustainability: Exploring the Potential of Global Value Chain (GVC) Obligations J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2023-01-08 James Harrison
This article investigates the potential of global value chain (GVC)-orientated sustainability provisions in regional and bilateral trade agreements (FTAs). Such provisions impose social and environmental obligations directly onto GVCs, as opposed to creating obligations for governments. The theoretical potential of GVC provisions is examined, and the concepts of effectiveness and legitimacy are introduced
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International Trade Agreements: Laboratories of Innovation or Propellers of Fragmentation? J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2022-12-28 Meredith Kolsky Lewis
The original ‘building blocks or stumbling blocks’ debate considered the positive and negative impacts on the multilateral trading system in the form of the World Trade Organization (WTO) of free trade agreements (FTAs) at a time when FTAs were primarily bilateral and/or regional. This article recasts the debate in light of modern realities. Since the collapse of the Doha Round, WTO Members have increasingly
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The Evolution of the ‘Trade and …’ ‘Debate’—A View from ASEAN J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2022-12-27 Locknie Hsu
This article explores the ‘Trade and …’ ‘Debate’ in the context of trade and environment issues. It provides an explanation of the evolution of discussions of such issues in a non-dispute settlement context, using developments in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ integration efforts as illustrations. It also highlights a number of opportunities for trade and environment collaboration in negotiations
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WIPO’s Contributions to International Cooperation on Intellectual Property J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2022-12-22 Lisa Jorgenson, Carsten Fink
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has enhanced global cooperation in a key area of International Economic Law. In particular, WIPO’s international intellectual property (IP) treaties have done much to bridge the territorial nature of IP with the business needs of innovators and brand owners who operate in an interconnected global economy. They also vividly illustrate the benefits
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Fair and Equitable Treatment and Human Rights: A Moral and Legal Reconciliation J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2022-11-28 Steven R Ratner
A central challenge to the legitimacy of international investment law is its failure to take account of a state’s commitments to its people under international human rights law—duties that stand on a special moral plane. The vortex of this challenge is the fair and equitable treatment standard, where tribunals protect the ‘legitimate expectations’ of investors but disregard these preeminent moral commitments
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The EU Sustainable Finance Framework in Light of International Standards J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2022-11-26 Dirk A Zetzsche, Marco Bodellini, Roberta Consiglio
This paper analyses the relationship between the EU sustainable finance legal framework and the most common international environmental, social, and governance standards. We find that standards included in the EU sustainable finance legal framework partly overlap with the international environmental, social and governance standards, while diverging as to the details. This overlap creates frictions
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Let’s Agree to Disagree: A Strategy for Trade-Security J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2022-11-25 Mona Pinchis-Paulsen
Deliberation of trade security is crucial for maintaining multilateral coordination and enabling governments, businesses, and individuals to navigate global economic networks. World Trade Organization (WTO) members’ mounting invocations of security-based trade restrictiveness increasingly challenge an institution that requires persistent coordination and transparency to function. WTO members need space
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Main Act or Side Show? Model Agreements by International Institutions and Their Reuse in Investment Treaty Texts J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2022-11-23 Wolfgang Alschner, Manfred Elsig, Simon Wüthrich
Scholars and negotiators often assert that model treaty texts published by international institutions (IIs) shape investment treaty design. This paper empirically investigates the reuse of international institutions’ treaty templates. It tracks the imprint of six international institution templates on the text of negotiated international investment agreements (IIAs) using the Electronic Database of
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Shareholding Formulas in International Financial Institutions: Learning From the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2022-09-13 Bin Gu, Tong Liu
Shareholding formulas determine member countries’ voice in capital-based international organizations. They are crucial for international finance and draw much attention in negotiations. In principle, these formulas reflect member countries’ relative economic positions, but in practice, they serve as a starting point in negotiations, alongside other economic and political factors. This article investigates
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Countering Commodity Trade Mispricing in Low-Income Countries: A Prescriptive Approach J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2022-08-30 Irene Musselli, Elisabeth Bürgi Bonanomi
Commodity trade mispricing, especially the undervaluation of commodity exports, disproportionately harms low-income countries that depend on commodity exports for most of their export earnings. Such countries should (re)consider adopting rule-based pricing methods as a prescriptive alternative to transaction-based valuation systems. This article firmly grounds rule-based pricing in market parameters
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Sovereign Solvency as Monetary Power J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2022-08-25 Karina Patrício Ferreira Lima
This article reconceptualizes sovereign insolvency from a money-centred perspective. Drawing on contemporary critiques of money and finance, it argues that as long as the international monetary system is structured upon a hierarchy of currencies, monetary power determines the solvency of sovereign states. The ability to issue debt in own currency and the degree to which such currency performs the functions
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Competition Law and Economic Inequality: A Comparative Analysis of the US Model of Law J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2022-08-17 Amit Zac
To what extent does the choice of competition law model correlate with economic inequality? While competition laws have been suggested as potentially contributing to current inequality trends in developed countries and as a viable instrument to address them, there is little empirical evidence on their distributional effects. This article helps fill this gap. It utilizes a comparative legal approach
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The Legalization of Cannabis and the Question of Reparations J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2022-07-30 Kojo Koram
This article surveys the dramatic sea change in the legal status of both the domestic and international cannabis trade over the past decade and asks whether legalization challenges or complements racial capitalism. As the changing status of prohibited drugs not only seeks to correct a historical wrong but also gives rise to a new, highly profitable cross-border commodities market, I analyse whether
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Refiguring Slavery Through International Law: The 1926 Slavery Convention, the ‘Native Labor Code’ and Racial Capitalism J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2022-07-28 Christopher Gevers
This article charts the refiguration of slavery through international law, the concatenations of slavery, colonialism and their afterlives in the present, and what these might tell us about racial capitalism and international economic law. Drawing on the Black Radical Tradition, it shows how slavery was refigured in two distinct but related respects. First, from the late nineteenth century onwards
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Indebted Impunity and Violence in a Lesser State: Ethno-Racial Capitalism in Sri Lanka J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2022-07-22 Sujith Xavier, Amar Bhatia, Adrian A Smith
This article examines the relationship between colonialism, capitalism, and violence in Sri Lanka through the combined lenses of international economic law (IEL) and transitional justice. We argue that colonialism instantiates vicious cycles in the histories of violence of ethno-racial capitalism through the creation of states with debts that can never be repaid. This system of ‘indebted impunity’
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Rethinking the Role of Indigenous Peoples as Rightsholders, Stakeholders, and Valuable Market Participants in the Global Trade and Investment Spaces J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2022-07-09 Jide James-Eluyode
At the Margins of Globalization and Indigenous Peoples and International Trade are remarkable in the sense that only few texts have successfully undertaken any meaningful and comprehensive analyses, from a multidimensional perspective, of the situation of indigenous peoples within the context of global economic development and international trade and investment law. The pertinence of the many critical
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Racial Capitalism and the Contemporary International Law on Slavery: (Re)membering Hacienda Brasil Verde J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2022-07-09 Adelle Blackett
Refusal of abject commodification undergirds contemporary international law definitions of slavery and their growing linkage to international economic agreements through injunctions against the use of forced labor. Yet there are screaming silences in ongoing attempts to grapple with the prevalence and significance of contemporary slavery in the global economy. This contribution to the special issue
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Markets, Sovereignty, and Racialization J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2022-07-08 Michael Fakhri
The 2009 European Union (EU) Seal Regime banning the importation of seal products on moral grounds and the series of cases before the EU courts and World Trade Organization provide an opportunity to understand how capitalism relies on racial categories. The EU Seal Regime is racist since it constructs an Indigenous identity based on abstract European definitions of subsistence hunting. It also has
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The Dream of Formality: Racialization Otherwise and International Economic Law J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2022-07-07 Donatella Alessandrini, Johanna del Pilar Cortes-Nieto, Luis Eslava, Anil Yilmaz Vastardis
This article explores the central role of formalization in the history and functioning of international economic law. International economic law, in constituting and managing a ‘modern’ world economy, has relied on what we call ‘the dream of formality’. This dream gives a sense of internal coherence and future totality to international economic law. It enables international economic law to claim awareness
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Racializing Trade in Corn: México Fights Maíz Imports and GMOs J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2022-07-05 Ernesto Hernández-López
International economic law (IEL) is racialized in México. This is evident with the North American Free Trade Agreement, US Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA), and ongoing litigation changing how Mexicans grow, buy, and consume corn. Racialization develops from law privileging foreign access, at the cost of domestic abilities to counter economic entry. This has domestic and international consequences.
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Full Protection and Security (for Racial Capitalism) J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2022-07-04 Ntina Tzouvala
Scholars and practitioners of international investment law have repeatedly attempted to legitimise the field by presenting it as an antidote against the arbitrary and excessive powers of the (postcolonial) state. Early cases, such as AAPL v. Sri Lanka, have contributed to this popular, yet ultimately unpersuasive, argument by seemingly constraining the conduct of warfare in the Global South. My contribution
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‘Moral’ Determinations in WTO Law: Lessons from the Seals Dispute J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2022-03-20 Ben Czapnik
This article develops a conceptual framework for understanding the ambiguous concept of public morals in World Trade Organization (WTO) law. It reviews the jurisprudence and literature to suggest there are four main options for operationalizing this concept in a legal test. If WTO adjudicators opt for an empirical approach, they can test whether a certain belief is genuinely held within the regulator’s
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The Function of Equity in International Law J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2022-03-01 Julien Chaisse
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New Asian Regionalism in International Economic Law J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2022-03-01 Jaemin Lee
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EU Trade Sustainability Impact Assessments: Revisiting the Consultation Process J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2022-02-14 Bernard Hoekman, Hugo Rojas-Romagosa
Trade sustainability impact assessments (SIAs) are the main tool used by the European Commission to assess the potential effects of trade policy initiatives and to engage with stakeholders. SIAs have two elements: a model-based quantitative analysis and a consultation process (CP). Both include a focus on a broad range of non-trade issues, many of which are included in sustainable development chapters
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The Judicial Function of Investment Tribunals: Taking Foundational Assumptions Seriously J. Int. Econ. Law (IF 3.16) Pub Date : 2022-02-09 Yanwen Zhang
The proliferation of international courts and tribunals has given rise to debates about the judicial function beyond dispute settlement. These debates provide a broader context to study investment tribunals, especially when various conceptions of their judicial function are articulated in the ongoing reform process at United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Working Group III on investor–state