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Debate about trade and culture has a long history, but the application of WTO rules to cultural products such as films, radio, and books remains one of the most divisive issues in the organization. After assessing the economic and social arguments for treating cultural products differently from things like steel or wheat, this 2007 book explains how the vastly different views of WTO members in earlier negotiations led to an outcome that is disappointing for all. It goes on to provide a comprehensive evaluation of possible solutions, including evolution of the law through WTO dispute settlement, an agreement outside the WTO, and reforms to improve the balance between trade liberalization and cultural policy objectives.
'Voon, Mitchell, and Liberman offer a penetrating analysis of the monumental struggle against smoking in the 21st century – the leading preventable cause of death in the world. Their book is undoubtedly the seminal scholarly examination of plain packaging of tobacco products. "Big Tobacco" is challenging plain packaging rules in trade, investment, and constitutional forums around the world. It is simply impossible to understand the law, policy, and profound social implications of tobacco control without this masterful text.' – Lawrence O. Gostin, Georgetown University and World Health Organization Centre on Public Health Law and Human Rights, US 'This book is a "must read" for anyone int...
International intervention on humanitarian grounds has been a contentious issue for decades. First, it pits the principle of state sovereignty against claims of universal human rights. Second, the motivations of intervening states may be open to question when avowals of moral action are arguably the fig leaf covering an assertion of power for political advantage. These questions have been salient in the context of the Balkan and African wars and U.S. policy in the Middle East. This volume undertakes a serious, systematic, and broadly international review of the issues.
Chapters relating to regulatory coherence or cooperation are becoming significant features in new preferential trade agreements, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). While the existing literature has considered in detail the potential for harmonisation of standards or institutional cooperation and its impact on the regulatory autonomy of treaty parties, this chapter focuses on those elements of regulatory coherence that relate to domestic processes for the development of regulations. It examines whether the adoption of 'good regulatory practices' in accordance with the TPP will help to ensure that measures states enact to protect non-economic interests (such as the environment or public health) are consistent with other key obligations of international trade and investment law. Although many elements of good regulatory practice mirror the criteria used to distinguish legitimate regulatory measures from disguised protectionism, there is no guarantee that a tribunal will come to the same conclusions as those reached during a domestic regulatory impact assessment.
This volume provides comprehensive chapter-by-chapter assessment of one of the world's most important regional trade agreements, the TPP/CPTPP.
International economic law, with its traditional focus on large multinational enterprises, is only slowly waking up to the new reality of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), entering the global marketplace. In the wake of the digital revolution, smaller companies now play an important role in the global economic landscape. In 2015 the UN expressly called for SMEs to have greater access to international trade and investment, and it is increasingly recognized that the integration of SMEs provides one of the keys to creating a more sustainable and inclusive global economy. As SMEs increasingly permeate transnational supply chains, so interactions between these companies and international...
What is the level of convergence between the international investment law framework and the international legal regime regulating intellectual property rights? This discerning book examines the interface between intellectual property and foreign direct
Analysing how arbitral tribunals have dealt with the value judgment at the core of the distinction between 'objectionable' and 'unobjectionable' treaty shopping, this book suggests how States could reform their international investment agreements in order to make them less susceptible to the practice of treaty shopping.
General international law is part and parcel of investor-state arbitration. This is the case not only regarding treaty law and state responsibility, but also with respect to matters such as state succession, the international minimum standard, and state immunity, all of which feature regularly in investor-state arbitration. Yet, although general international law issues arise in almost every investment case and often require extensive research, no systematic exploration of the relationship between the two exists. This Commentary is the first to fill this gap, providing a comprehensive treatment of the role of general international law in international investment law. It engages in detail wit...
The contributors to Corporate Citizen explore the legal frameworks and standards of conduct for multinational corporations. In a globalized world governed by domestic and international law, these corporations can be everywhere and nowhere at once, reaping financial benefits and enjoying the protections of investor-state arbitration but rarely being held accountable for the economic, environmental, and human rights harms they may have caused. Given the far-reaching power and success of the transnational corporation, and the many legal tools allowing these companies to avoid liability, how can governments protect their citizens? Broad-ranging in perspective, colourful and thought-provoking, the chapters in Corporate Citizen make the case that because the success of corporate global citizenship risks undermining national and international democratic governance, the multinational corporation must be more closely scrutinized and controlled – in the service of humanity and the protection of the natural environment.