Emerging Powers, Global Justice, and International Economic Law: Reformers of an Unjust Order? By BUSERANDREAS, Cham: Springer Nature, 2021. ISBN 9783030636388, 439 pp.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) Secretariat has developed a typology to categorize various Special and Differential Treatment (SDT) provisions in WTO agreements. This typology is based on the aims and intended effects of such provisions. However, it fails to highlight their legal effects. A legal typology is particularly important because the developed Members note that the developing Members have

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Principles on Promoting Responsible Sovereign Lending and Borrowing provide inter alia that creditors should ensure debt contracts are duly authorized; yet, the Mozambique Tuna Bond Scandal suggests that in the market for private bank-to-state credit facilities agreements, there is still work to do. This article presents empirical evidence suggesting

Despite the dominance of arbitration in the realm of investor-state disputes, the variety of proposals for reform suggest considerable stakeholder discontent with the current framework. One suggested reform is the introduction of investor–state mediation, which has been supported by the conclusion of the Singapore Convention on Mediation and the proposal by the International Centre for Settlement of

The Protection of Intellectual Property Rights under International Investment Law. Edited By KLOPSCHINSKISIMON, GIBSONCHRISTOPHER S, and RUSE-KHANHENNING GROSSE, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. ISBN: 9780198712268, 592pp.

This paper identifies factors that may lead transnational companies to support transnational regulation in order to level the field between themselves and their rivals when they confront an uneven field produced by either public regulation or private governance. Transnational regulation offers these companies a means to reduce competitive losses by distributing compliance costs to rivals. Differential

The mushrooming of special economic zones (SEZs) in recent years has led to a significant increase in the supply of attractive incentives for investors looking for opportunities abroad. Special economic zones are self-contained regimes, inextricably associated with investment promotion policies and domestic industrial policy in general, that many times form part of a broader strategic governmental

The international economic regime has entered a new phase of reassertion of sovereignty by States. While States continue to show respect for the values of international (economic) law, the institutionalization of these values has devolved from the international (to the regional) to the domestic level of governance. A new form of ‘unilateral economic law’ is thus gaining importance in the development

The incentives available to enterprises located in special economic zones can be classified into three broad categories, namely, (i) fiscal incentives in the nature of tax incentives and exemption of duties, (ii) non-fiscal incentives in the form of infrastructural and developmental facilities, and (iii) regulatory incentives covering lenient and flexible compliance requirements. The fiscal incentives

This review analyzes the efficacy of the collection in engaging with international law through the lens of feminist jurisprudence. The editors have compiled a diverse collection that applies feminist thought to varying topics of international law, including economic topics that do not obviously lend themselves to feminist engagement, that demonstrates the benefits of such analysis. The handbook effectively

This article focuses on the interaction and relationship between Special Economic Zones (SEZs) as facets of unilateral economic law, international investment law, and the investor–state dispute settlement (ISDS) system in a four-fold manner. It initially explains the role of international investment agreements in protecting foreign investments in these zones. Then, it classifies the public or private

From Ideas to Action: Governance Paths to Net Zero. By , UK: Oxford University Press, 2020. ISBN 9780198852308, 336pp.

Corporate taxation and particularly corporate tax incentives that jurisdictions introduce in special economic zones have not, until recently, been subject to extensive international regulation. Only in the last decade has a regime of soft law standards and European Union measures with extraterritorial effect been constructed. This article explains how the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Action Plan

Special economic zones (SEZs) and regional trade agreements (RTAs) are frequently used by states as policy tools to promote economic development. As SEZs and RTAs overlap in geographical coverage and regulation areas and are implemented in parallel, they could create profound synergies. As there is no specialized international legal framework for SEZ regulation, and national SEZ laws seldom touch upon

International commercial courts are currently proliferating from the last generation special economic zones of the Gulf region to the whole of Asia and Europe. International commercial courts are institutions of a new era of international economic law and adjudication. Zone courts, alongside the new uses of arbitration within special economic zones, may be viewed as the adjudicatory counterpart of

The article discusses various types of investor obligations in special economic zones and examines how they are utilized as instruments for devising development policies. It presents the evolution of regulatory models and practices related to investor obligations in the context of the unilateral character of the legal framework of the zones. The article distinguishes between two types of investor obligations

This paper analyses the legal nature of the dispute settlement system in the World Trade Organization. It places the Panel stage at the heart of it and stresses the crucial role of the World Trade Organization Secretariat. It submits proposals for structural reform. It qualifies Panel reports as a product of a legal agency process in global administrative law. It consequently recalibrates the role

Special economic zones (SEZs) have spread rapidly over the past 20 years, including in many low- and middle-income countries keen to attract private investment for industrial development. But while much debate has focused on their economic performance and success factors and on links with the wider architecture of international economic law, there are enduring concerns over respect for labour rights

Many governmental incentives unilaterally offered in special economic zones affect competition in international markets and thus fall within the scope of the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures. Until very recently, products made in such zones could face countervailing duty investigations abroad on a charge of improper subsidization. In 2019, the World Trade

Global Banks on Trial: U.S. Prosecution and the Remaking of International Finance. By , New York: Oxford University Press, 2020. ISBN 9780190675776, 272 pp.

ABSTRACTThere have not been many studies to evaluate the tenets of international investment law from a feminist perspective. Thus, a study from a feminist perspective is not only desirable but also necessary to understand the position of women in this regime. To fill this gap, the article presents an analysis of the normative and structural frameworks of international investment law from a feminist

ABSTRACTThe number of investor–state arbitration disputes has increased to more than 1000 to date, but their determinants are still not fully understood. We argue that in the wake of severe macroeconomic turmoil—economic crisis—policymakers have strong incentives to implement regulatory changes, even if these allegedly breach protection standards are provided by International Investment Agreements

ABSTRACTInvestment treaties grant foreign investors legal rights to compensation for losses caused by certain host state conduct. Many states are reconsidering their involvement in these treaties because they perceive the risks to outweigh the benefits. We start from the normative premise that participation in investment treaties should benefit both ‘host’ and ‘home’ states. Using a law and economics

ABSTRACTWhen the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) was founded 60 years ago, the contracting parties established a dispute settlement procedure that sought to strike a balance between the need to supervise compliance with the EFTA Convention and the need to respect the sovereignty of the member states. The procedure of Article 31 empowered the EFTA Council to hear interstate complaints, establish

ABSTRACTThe EU’s weak promotional policy towards sustainability in its free trade arguments is up for revision. Labour and environmental standards need to be tightened. They were given a boost on balance by a remarkable panel ruling of January 2021 in the long-standing EU–Korea labour dispute. Compliance ought to be subject to regular dispute settlement between governments. Sanctions must be added

ABSTRACTRecently, environmental and human rights (EHR) counterclaims in investment arbitration have attracted much attention as a vehicle to recalibrate the investor–state relationship. However, until now, successful instances of EHR counterclaims have been admittedly rare. As explained in this paper, some of the major barriers to EHR counterclaims in investment arbitration, and some of the concerns

ABSTRACTAfter the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union (EU), the EU’s trade defence measures no longer applied to the territory of the UK. This means that the UK now applies its own trade defence measures and has transitioned some of the EU’s trade defence measures. The EU applies its trade defence measures to the reduced territory of the EU27, while third parties that had imposed trade defence

A Post-WTO International Legal Order: Utopian, Dystopian and Other Scenarios. Edited by , Cham Springer, 2020. ISBN 978-3-030-45427-2, 291 pp.

ABSTRACTSince 2017, World Trade Organization members have been engaged in Structured Discussions aimed at agreeing on a multilateral framework on investment facilitation for development. The negotiations focus on establishing binding disciplines for investment facilitation, which will likely be made subject to the World Trade Organization Dispute Settlement Understanding. Investment facilitation, however

ABSTRACTIncorporating anti-corruption provisions into international investment agreements is a vital step for governments to address transnational corruption in international investment. This empirical study analyses a category of anti-corruption provisions that fosters compliance by investors. These anti-corruption provisions address anti-corruption issues either within corporate social responsibility

ABSTRACTInvestment law was not always about investor–state arbitration. Based on British and German archival materials from the Cold War, this paper shows how aims and priorities in the investment treaty regime changed over time. We find important differences in the role and relative importance of different legal rules then and now. Most notably, national treatment and free transfer clauses were key

Narratives of Hunger in International Law: Feeding the World in Times of Climate Change. By ANNE SAAB, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, Studies in International and Comparative Law, 2019. ISBN 9781108473378, 177pp.

Patent Games in the Global South: Pharmaceutical Patent Law-Making in Brazil, India and Nigeria. By AMAKA VANNI, UK, USA: Hart Publishing, Studies in International and Investment Law, 2019. ISBN, HB: 9781509927395, 240 pp.

ABSTRACTThe ongoing reform of investment arbitration at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law can have a lasting impact on international investment protection for the decades ahead. This paper examines the current discussions at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law to explain why the current focus on reforming the procedural aspects of the system is too narrow

Trade and Environment Governance at the World Trade Organization Committee on Trade and Environment. By MANUEL A.J. TEEHANKEE, Den Haag, Kluwer Law International, Wolters Kluwer, 2020. ISBN 978-94-035-2210-4, 424 pp.

ABSTRACTWith its dispute settlement system in peril, the role of the World Trade Organization in mitigating commercial conflict is more important than ever, but its working practices need reform. The Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures and Technical Barriers to Trade committees have developed a mechanism for members to raise ‘specific trade concerns’ about the laws, regulations, and practices of their

ABSTRACTThe digitalization of the economy combined with sophisticated tax planning has enabled some multinationals to avoid paying almost any income tax in most market jurisdictions from which they earn substantial profits. Faced with financial and political pressures to act, market states have sought to expand their tax bases so that these multinationals, especially those providing internet advertising

AbstractConsidering the new focus of the European Union (EU) trade policy on strengthening the enforcement of trade rules, the article presents the proposed amendments to the EU Trade Enforcement Regulation 654/2014. It analyzes the EU Commission proposal and the amendments suggested by the European Parliament Committee on International Trade (INTA), in particular with regard to uncooperative third

ABSTRACTThe new countervailing duty proceeding rule of the United States on exchange rates aims to address currency undervaluation through a subsidy tool under the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures. As there is no prohibition in the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (ASCM) making macro-economic policies off-limits from the reach of subsidy norms, exchange rates can

The Law of Political Economy. Transformation in the Function of Law. Edited by POUL FKJAER, Cambridge: Oxford University Press, 2020. ISBN 978-1-108-49311-6, 408pp.

ABSTRACTDebates about the meaning of ‘evolutionary interpretation’ reveal the existence of two conflicting views. Some see evolutionary interpretation as an inevitable step in the ordinary process of applying fixed written language to changing reality. Others see it as a means for interpreters—and, crucially, adjudicators—to update the agreement being applied, infusing into the text the interpreter’s

ABSTRACT Economics and security seem increasingly intertwined. Citing national security, states subject foreign investments to new scrutiny, even unwinding mergers. The provision of 5G has become a diplomatic battleground—Huawei at its center. Meanwhile, states invoke national security to excuse trade wars. The USA invoked the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade national security exception to impose

Recent debates on the operation of the WTO’s dispute resolution mechanism have focused primarily on the Appellate Body (AB). We argue that this neglects the first-order issue confronting the rules-based trading system: sustaining the principle of de-politicized conflict resolution that is reflected in the negative consensus rule for adoption of dispute settlement findings. Improving the quality of

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into stark relief the gaps in global preparedness to address widespread outbreaks of deadly viral infections. This article proposes legal mechanisms for addressing critical issues facing the international community in terms of providing equitable access to vaccines, treatments, diagnostics, and medical equipment. On the supply side, the authors propose the

Abstract Health pandemics affect women and men differently, and they can make the existing gender inequalities much worse. COVID-19 is one such pandemic, which can have substantial gendered implications both during and in the post-pandemic world. Its economic and social consequences could deepen the existing gender inequalities and roll back the limited gains made in respect of women empowerment in

For the second time this decade, the Court of Justice of the European Union has struck a blow against the principal mechanisms for personal data transfer to the United States. In Data Protection Commissioner v Facebook Ireland, Maximillian Schrems, the Court declared the EU-US Privacy Shield invalid and placed significant hurdles to the process of transferring personal data from the European Union

Dirty money is often a by-product or a symptom of political corruption in the jurisdictions in which it originates. It can also spread corruption and erode democracy on its journey to its final destination. This typically involves multiple jurisdictions and is the reason why it is so hard to detect. Recently, a series of money laundering scandals have highlighted weaknesses in the anti-money laundering

The last two decades of the XX century have been marked by a vigorous acceleration of international economic integration both at a global and regional level. States accepted pervasive constraints on their national decision-making in the hope that stability and predictability would favor economic growth. This model of international economic integration, however, has recently shown worrying signs of

In his influential book, Straight Talk on Trade, Dani Rodrik provides a cogent critique of the existing international economic order and concludes as follows: ‘So, I accept that nation-states are a source of disintegration for the global economy ’ This article critically engages with the idea that the nation-state is a legitimate force of disintegration of the international economic order, with particular

textabstractThis article looks at theories of differentiated integration and disintegration in the wake of the Eurozone crisis and the Brexit referendum. It advances four distinct, albeit interrelated, arguments with respect to these proposals. First, it could be contested whether certain policy areas should be pushed to the ‘outer core’ of European integration. Second, it would be very difficult to

Resistance to the law made through expansionist interpretation of investment treaties by arbitral tribunals has led to the disintegration of the resulting structure of investment protection The creation of an inflexible system of investment protection through arbitral interpretation undermines the exercise of power of states to take measures to protect the public interest The process of disintegration

In this paper, we discuss the limits of the architecture of the euro from an economic point of view We first highlight how the choice to create a monetary union was not supported by the accepted theory of optimal currency areas, and how its institutional set-up responded to a special and questionable view of the functioning of the economy, which recognized only a limited role to active macroeconomic

The Energy Charter Treaty is the most frequently used investment treaty worldwide to launch investment arbitration against host states. The vast majority of disputes is of intra-European Union nature in that they involve an EU investor as claimant and an European Union member state as respondent. The recent Achmea judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union may thus have ramifications for

The article introduces a new dataset that seeks to comprehensively trace developments in the area of digital trade governance. The TAPED (Trade Agreements Provisions on Electronic-Commerce and Data) dataset includes a detailed mapping and coding of all preferential trade agreements that cover chapters, provisions, annexes, and side documents that directly or indirectly regulate digital trade. This

In the last two decades, World Trade Organization law’s public interest exceptions (Article XX GATT, Article XIV GATS, Article 2.2 of the TBT Agreement, and Article 20 TRIPS) have seen the emergence and evolution of the doctrine of ‘weighing and balancing.’ This paper provides a criticism of this doctrine through a comparative ontological analysis and demonstrates three propositions. First, it

Today’s trade agreements include “trade-plus” provisions such as intellectual property, labor, and environment commitments and subject them to the same dispute settlement mechanisms as the traditional commercial provisions. This Article queries whether the institutional design in which such trade-plus provisions operate is both appropriate and appropriately theorized. It argues that the trade-plus

The classic political economy of trade models state behavior on the international plane by reference to the formation of domestic interests. Voters, interest groups, and politicians are rational actors in this model, pursuing their economic preferences without cognitive or motivational distortions. This article questions the sufficiency of the rational choice model in the formation of contemporary

On 13 August 2018, US President Donald Trump signed a legislation called the ‘Export Controls Act of 2018’ (ECA) that is important for reinvigorating the export control regime in the USA. This paper argues that contents of the ECA will not only impact the USA but also the way that the ECA is structured will potentially have a long-lasting influence on international export control regimes and the

In the wake of the mega-free trade agreements, all of the 10 member countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations are determined to participate in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and to maintain the centrality of the Association of South East Asian Nations whereas Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam have also opted for the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for

A cross-cumulation arrangement helps manufacturers meet the demands of the global value chain economy by facilitating the sourcing of intermediate products within the territories of participants in the arrangement. It is a de facto free-trade area formed by a network of bilateral free-trade areas underpinning the arrangement. However, a cross-cumulation clause provided in a bilateral free-trade area