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Abstract:
The paper presents an outline of the issues and a preliminary appraisal of the use of trade sanctions by the World Trade Organization (WTO) as a means of promoting compliance by parties. The WTO is unique among intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) in using trade sanctions to enforce independent adjudications. Many commentators have suggested using trade sanctions analogously in other IGOs, or alternatively broadening trade rules so that the sanctions can be used for other purposes, such as enforcing basic human rights. The paper examines the advantages and disadvantages of the use of such compliance sanctions by the WTO and concludes that the WTO should abandon these trade-restrictive measures. Instead, the paper proposes that the WTO promote compliance in the same way that other IGOs do, through transnational public opinion and review mechanisms. The paper also proposes a new WTO optional protocol to help governments change their laws when needed to meet WTO obligations.

Trade, WTO, world trade organization, dispute settlement, economic sanction, sanction, international law, international organization, human rights, non-governmental organization

Abstract:
The paper presents an outline of the issues and a preliminary appraisal of the use of trade sanctions by the World Trade Organization (WTO) as a means of promoting compliance by parties. The WTO is unique among intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) in using trade sanctions to enforce independent adjudications. Many commentators have suggested using trade sanctions analogously in other IGOs, or alternatively broadening trade rules so that the sanctions can be used for other purposes, such as enforcing basic human rights. The paper examines the advantages and disadvantages of the use of such compliance sanctions by the WTO and concludes that the WTO should abandon these trade-restrictive measures. Instead, the paper proposes that the WTO promote compliance in the same way that other IGOs do, through transnational public opinion and review mechanisms. The paper also proposes a new WTO optional protocol to help governments change their laws when needed to meet WTO obligations.

Trade, WTO, world trade organization, dispute settlement, economic sanction, sanction, international law, international organization, human rights, non-governmental organization

Abstract:
The issue of the accountability on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in global governance has received increased attention in recent years. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the issue, to consider whether any public problems exist, and to make recommendations on what should be done. The paper contains three parts. Part I examines the historical context of NGO accountability starting with the Papal Encylical Rerum Novarum of 1891 and considering episodes relating to the League of Nations and the founding of the United Nations. Part II provides an overview of the contemporary debate on NGO accountability and uses a recent article by Robert Keohane and Ruth Grant as a point of entry. Part III offers my own framework for how to think about the challenge of NGO accountability and suggests that more attention be given to the individual as the unit of analysis. The paper makes recommendations for what should be done to improve NGO accountability and more importantly what should not be done. This paper was prepared for a conference at New York University Law School in April 2005 on the emerging field of global administrative law (GAL).

nongovernmental organizations, NGO, civil society, global governance, legitimacy, democratic theory, global administrative law

Abstract:
The linkage between trade and the environment stands out as an important challenge in global economic governance. Over the past decade, the WTO devoted considerable attention to this issue and included it on the agenda of the Doha Round. In parallel, the jurisprudence on trade and the environment has experienced significant advances. This study provides an overview of the main institutional changes at the WTO and of the developments in the jurisprudence most relevant to the interaction between the environment and trade. Specifically, this study focuses on GATT Article XX and takes note of many positive (and a few negative) features of the key Appellate Body decisions.

globalization, GATT, WTO, World Trade Organization, environment, trade, Doha, ITO, multilateral environmental agreement, MEA, trade and environment, trade-related environmental measures, TREM, international governance, global governance

Abstract:
This study provides an overview of how the World Trade Organization rules relate to international standards, that is, standards propounded by some international entity. The topic of standards is a cross-cutting issue in the WTO because rules regarding international standards appear in several of the covered WTO agreements. The paper contains several parts. Part I of the paper explores the meaning of the term international standard and adopts a broad definition for analytical purposes. Part II introduces a typology for international standards. Part III discusses why international standards are important to economic development. Part IV examines some of the key WTO provisions regarding international standards. Part V looks at how WTO intergovernmental committees and bodies have implemented these provisions during the first several years of the WTO. Part VI describes some of the key standard-setting organizations that directly affect the WTO.

International standard, WTO, Codex Alimentarius Commission, ISO, Services, trade, non-tariff barriers

Abstract:
The Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO) is silent regarding its relationship to the individual. One might presume that an international organization set up to emancipate trade could have no purpose other than upholding trading rights of private actors. But the WTO was not established to achieve "free trade". That goal is absent from the Marrakesh Agreement. Instead, the goals of the Agreement are "reciprocal and mutually advantageous arrangements directed to the substantial reduction of tariffs and other barriers to trade" and the "elimination of discriminatory treatment in international trade relations". The term "reciprocal arrangements" makes clear that the focus of the Marrakesh Agreement is not on the individual trader, but rather on the meshing of governmental trade policies. This is confirmed by the object of the quoted provision, namely, "international trade relations". A visitor from another planet who takes a quick look at the Marrakesh Agreement could draw an erroneous conclusion about the Earth's economy. The visitor could infer that international trade is carried on between governments (or between nations) and that the intended beneficiaries of the Marrakesh Agreement are the government Members of the WTO.

Such a hasty inference would be wrong however. Although the subjects of the Marrakesh Agreement are the governments, a closer look at the multilateral trading system shows that individual economic actors are assimilated. Annexed to the Marrakesh Agreement are 17 interwoven trade agreements, most of which accord rights indirectly to the individual. This important feature of WTO law has not received the attention that it deserves.

In recent years, some commentators have called the WTO the "World Trade Constitution". Paralleling constitutions at the national level, the Marrakesh Agreement specifies decision rules and delineates the separation of powers among the WTO organs. In this way, the Marrakesh Agreement also resembles charters of other international agencies, such as the "Constitution" of the World Health Organization. But the constitutional underpinnings of the WTO go deeper than that. The WTO is constitution-like in reaching into the nation-state to guarantees rights to individuals.

The purpose of this article is to explore this little-noted dimension of international economic law. The article proceeds as follows: Part I examines the way that WTO agreements mandate certain rights for the individual in national law. Part II looks at the limited way in which the WTO agreements provide procedural rights to individuals at the WTO. Part III discusses how the WTO's emerging jurisprudence expounds this new relationship and interprets WTO rules in light of the needs of economic actors. Part IV proposes ways that a new WTO trade round could build on these developments in order to strengthen private rights.

WTO, international law, international trade, private rights

Abstract:
The member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) joined either as original members or through the Article XII accession process. To date, over 20 members have joined through accession including most notably China in 2001. Recently, Vietnam completed its accession negotiations and Russia made do so sometime in 2007. Governments joining the WTO through accession have to abide by WTO rules, as all members do, but applicant governments are also often asked to accept individualized rules tailored for them through negotiations. These special rules have not received extensive examination in previous scholarship. The purpose of this article is to put forward a framework for understanding these market-oriented rules negotiated between applicant governments and the WTO. The first part of the article defines and illustrates the categories of applicant WTO-plus, applicant WTO-minus, incumbent WTO-plus, incumbent WTO-minus, and some residual categories. The second part of the article considers the potential enforceability of these special provisions under the WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding by examining options for a theory of the case as to why enforceability is justified. The article includes that accession commitments are enforceable as secondary WTO law under Article XII, rather than as a treaty between an international organization and a state.

World Trade Organization, WTO, trade, accession, international organization, China, dispute settlement, trade negotiations, transparency, asymmetric bargaining, discrimination, protectionism

Abstract:
This paper discusses the challenge of improving transparency and participation in the World Trade Organization (WTO). Part I explores the development in international trade law of the norm for transparency and participation at the national level. The analysis begins with Immanuel Kant and traces the history of the issue in trade through the League of Nations and then to the postwar trading system culminating in the WTO. Part II describes the WTO's practices regarding openness and public participation, and then criticizes the current limitations. Part III proposes several new steps for the WTO to take to promote transparency and participation. The paper is situated in the new subfield of global administrative law. The feature of the WTO that most renders it an administrative agency is that the principals - that is, the Members - have given the WTO competence as their joint agent to carry out certain discrete international functions. From the perspective of a national legislature, the WTO resembles an administrative agency in the sense that it makes decisions that affect a domestic polity and yet extend beyond the direct legislative control of national elected officials. It is that similarity to the domestic agency that forms the basis for the application of administrative law principles to the WTO itself. Just as a legislature would impose administrative law on a domestic agency to make it more fair, transparent, and accountable, that legislature could conceptualize a similar role for the application of administrative law principles to the WTO. In doing so, the legislature (or the electorate) might have two targets in mind: one will be the WTO and its decisionmaking. The other will be the government's own representatives to the WTO for which WTO secrecy may present a barrier to effective parliamentary (and public).

WTO, international trade, good governance, transparency, democracy, accountability, global administrative law

Abstract:
This paper is about Taiwan and the World Trade Organization. It discusses the history of Taiwan's involvement in the world trading system and the accession to the WTO. The paper then notes some unique features of Taiwan's membership and discusses the current political tension with China in the WTO. The paper ends with a discussion of the implications of Taiwan's membership in the WTO for potential Taiwanese membership in other international organizations.

Taiwan, WTO, world trade, international law, statehood, China

Abstract:
This paper examines the two tracks used by the United States to negotiate and approve international treaties - (1) the traditional treaty process requiring Senate consent by a two-thirds vote and (2) the newer fast track process used for trade agreements, requiring Congressional passage of a law to approve and implement the agreement. Several historical and current examples are used such as the Treaty of Versailles and the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. The paper explains why the latter process is superior in many ways, and asks whether it should be applied more broadly beyond the topic of trade. Three challenges to doing so are discussed. First, the paper considers whether the Congressional-Executive Agreement format used for trade agreements is constitutional. Second, the paper considers the democratic acceptability of approving treaties by law rather than by a supermajority in the Senate. Third, the paper points to the key ingredient for the trade approach which is a framework statute that sets an agenda for the trade negotiations in advance and sets the terms for implementation. The paper recommends the adoption of similar international negotiating framework legislation in other areas of international law such as environment, labor, intellectual property, and possibly human rights.

international law, treaty, Congressional-Executive Agreement, Congress, President, international trade, WTO, U.S. Senate, democracy

Abstract:
A key assumption underlying the World Trade Organization (WTO) is that its program of trade negotiations will strengthen the world economy and lead to more trade, investment, employment and income growth throughout the world. In the author's view, the WTO truly is strengthening the world economy and promoting trade and investment in many parts of the world. Yet the rest of the thesis is debatable. Is it necessarily true that the WTO and the trade negotiations it sponsors are increasing employment and income growth throughout the world? Indeed, even aggregating the world economy into one planetary unit, one wonders whether increased trade (and its ensuing dynamic efficiencies) inevitably increases the quantity of global employment. Even if it does, what is the quality of the jobs created? Does the WTO promote what the International Labour Organization (ILO) calls decent work? Such questions underlie the subject of this article - the neglected employment dimension of the WTO. The author does not propose to answer these questions empirically. Instead, the article endeavors to point out how little the WTO does to monitor these issues or to design trade rules with sensitivity to the objective of employment growth. So far, the WTO has not set any quantitative goals for income or employment growth. The trade ministers have alluded to their desire that the WTO promote the benefit and welfare of their peoples, but the ministers are lackadaisical about keeping WTO negotiations on schedule. In view of the broad nature of international trade law today, the WTO seems to be overlooking many opportunities to promote a positive employment agenda.

trade, WTO, employment

Abstract:
In September 2004, then-European Commissioner for Trade Pascal Lamy released his study on the political challenge of 'collective preferences' for the world trading system. Lamy defines 'collective preferences' as 'the end result of choices made by human communities that apply to the community as a whole'. The adoption of collective preferences by governments can complicate international trade when a good or service from an exporting country is not acceptable in an importing country. Collective preferences cause a problem for the WTO if the resulting measure violates WTO rules and yet the measure is too popular in the regulating country for the government to withdraw it. The paradigmatic example is the European Communities - Hormones dispute in which the European Commission could not comply because of contrary popular and parliamentary opinion. To address cases like that, Lamy proposes the negotiation of a new safeguards provision in the WTO which would permit governments to retain strongly-supported measures provided that compensation is paid. The purpose of this article is to analyze Lamy's paper and to contribute to the continuing international debate on 'collective preferences'. The article concludes that while Lamy's proposal is a worthy idea, achieving it in the WTO is highly unlikely.

WTO, international law, European Union, social choice

Abstract:
This study explores a potential labor dimension for the FTAA. The study is divided into four parts: Part 1 provides context by reviewing the history of Inter-American economic cooperation, especially on labor and trade. Part 2 examines how labor has been addressed in the major free trade agreements of the Americas. Part 3 looks at the normative basis for international labor cooperation. Part 4 makes specific recommendations for addressing labor issues in the FTAA. The ideas in Part 4 seek to stimulate practical, concerted action to address labor and employment problems of regional economic integration. My recommendations for the FTAA do not include an obligation to adhere to core ILO conventions. However one weighs the advantages and disadvantages of that course, such fusion is unlikely to be accepted by FTAA governments. As for the reciprocal obligation to enforce national law, it should be omitted unless governments are willing to replace the current window dressing with a private right of action. Contemporary FTAs seem designed to assist global corporations and devote little attention to those without power or wealth. If governments were to get serious about helping vulnerable workers, then such action could help to humanize trade agreements and lead to more widely shared prosperity.

labor, international trade, human rights, Free Trade Area of the America, ILO, international law, industrial relations, CAFTA, NAFTA, worker rights

Abstract:
In contrast to other international organizations, the World Trade Organization does not require its members to be states. This constitutional feature has allowed Taiwan to join the WTO alongside China. As a result, the WTO is now the only major international organization in which Taiwan can participate as a full member.

This article explores some implications of this unique situation for Taiwan, for the WTO, and for international law. The article contends that Taiwan's membership in the WTO is not itself a bilateral treaty with China and does not itself change the legal relationship between Taiwan and China. What Taiwan's membership does do, however, is to establish some rule of law between Taiwan and China and to give Taiwan standing in an international tribunal should it wish to assert that China has violated WTO rules. The parallel memberships of Taiwan and China also provide a neutral international forum for those two governments to meet and negotiate if needed. The article also points out some dangers to the WTO that stem from Taiwan's exclusion from international standard-setting organizations. The article recommends that the WTO do more to assist Taiwan in carrying out its WTO obligations that involve the international community.

In joining the WTO, Taiwan has enhanced its sovereignty in the modern sense of being able to participate in world governance. So far, Taiwan's membership in the WTO has not facilitated its quest for a capacity to participate in the World Health Organization.

accession, China, dispute settlement, Doha round, environment, GATT, health, IMF, international agreement, international law, international organization, international relations, sovereignty, Taipei, Taiwan, world trade, WTO

Abstract:
This paper addresses the status of the international law convention on freedom of association in the United States. Although the United States supported the adoption of the Convention on Freedom of Association (#87) in the International Labour Organization in 1948, the U.S. government has not ratified that Convention. Instead, the Convention has sat on the shelf in the United States Senate since 1949, the longest unratified convention on the treaty calendar of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The paper analyzes the disadvantages for the United States in failing to become a party to this important treaty. The paper notes that in 2007, the United States did move forward to support freedom of association as an international right by incorporating a commitment toward freedom of association in four free trade agreements involving Peru, Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. So far, only the Peru treaty has been approved by the U.S. Congress. As a result, U.S. conduct within the trading system is inconsistent than U.S. conduct in the labor regime. Oddly, U.S. government seems willing to make international commitments on freedom of association as part of a trade treaty, but not as part of a labor treaty. This is a counterintuitive result for those who see international organizations as being specialized and international law as being compartmentalized. The paper reflects on how this situation came about and makes suggestions for how the next Administration and the Congress might proceed to strengthen commitments to international law labor within the United States.

international trade law, worker rights, labor law, labor unions, free trade agreement, international labor rights, International Labor Organization, human rights, treaty, U.S. Senate, treaty ratification

Abstract:
This article examines a new phenomenon, transparliamentary activism that focuses on particular international issues or international organizations. For example, the Parliamentary Conference on the World Bank. Such parliamentary organizing has a political significance beyond the usual transnational NGO activities because parliamentarians are elected officials. The transparliamentary activism discussed here differs from the traditional interparliamentary association going back over a hundred years. The article discusses the recent developments in the World Trade Organization and the World Bank.

World Trade Organization, World Bank, international organization, parliament, nongovernmental organization, globalization

Abstract:
No abstract available.

anaemia management, cost-effectiveness, dose, epoetin, safety and tolerability, subcutaneous administration

Abstract:
The relationship of the WTO to the international community and to its individual denizens continues to be a contentious topic in trade law and policy. In 2001, European Commissioner for Trade Pascal Lamy suggested the need for `cosmopolitics` in global governance in order to improve decision-making and enhance legitimacy. In this article, Steve Charnovitz shows how the WTO already engages in various practices of cosmopolitics, despite the continuing pull of the mantra that only Members are of relevance within the WTO. Following this review of current practice, the article points several additional ways in which the WTO could boost transparency and deepen public participation.

Abstract:
In September 2004, then-European Commissioner for Trade Pascal Lamy released his study on the political challenge of `collective preferences` for the world trading system. Collective preferences cause a problem for the WTO if the resulting measure violates WTO rules and yet the measure is too popular in the regulating country for the government to withdraw it. The paradigmatic example is EC - Hormones in which the European Commission could not comply because of contrary popular and parliamentary opinion. To address such circumstances, Lamy proposes the negotiation of a new WTO safeguard that would permit governments to retain strongly-supported measures provided that compensation is paid. This article analyzes Lamy`s paper and discusses the many challenges to validating a collective preference. The article posits that whether a new safeguard is needed depends in part on the leeway that WTO rules provide for legitimate domestic measures. The article concludes that while Lamy`s purpose may be worthy, his proposal has several weaknesses, and enacting it in the WTO is highly unlikely.

anaemia management, cost-effectiveness, dose, epoetin, safety and tolerability, subcutaneous administration

Abstract:
The linkage between trade and the environment stands out as an important challenge in global economic governance. Over the past decade, the WTO devoted considerable attention to this issue and included it on the agenda of the Doha Round. In parallel, the jurisprudence on trade and the environment has experienced significant advances. This study provides an overview of the main institutional changes at the WTO and of the developments in the jurisprudence most relevant to the interaction between the environment and trade. Specifically, this study focuses on General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Article XX and takes note of many positive (and a few negative) features of the key Appellate Body decisions.