Trade & Economic Law

[Congyan Cai is a Professor of International Law at Fudan University School of Law.] The landscape of international power has seen considerable realignment in the past decade, which is expected to continue in coming years. A couple of former less powerful states whose voices were silenced have increased their capability to influence international economic governance and their economic power continues to grow. In contrast, those great powers...

[Helmut Philipp Aust is a Professor of Law at the Freie Universität Berlin.] For the last few years, the world has been enthralled by the gradual withdrawal of the United States from its previous role as a key actor shaping the global economic order through multilateral institutions and based on rules of international law. Probably the trademark of the Trump administration, its slogan “America first” easily translated...

This week, we have the pleasure of hosting an exciting discussion on Andreas Buser's recent book, Emerging Powers, Global Justice and International Economic Law: Reformers of an Unjust Order? published by Springer. From the Publisher: The book assesses emerging powers’ influence on international economic law and analyses whether their rhetoric of reforming this ‘unjust’ order translates into concrete reforms. The questions at the...

Featured Announcement BIICL Training Courses Spring 2021 The British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) now offers training courses in a virtual format. BIICL virtual courses are led by the Institute's leading researchers, together with external experts and distinguished practitioners. The course format consists of a series of sessions in which live teaching is offered via Zoom. Participants are able to...

By Laura Knöpfel (Senior Research Fellow Transnational Law Institute, Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London) and Carlos López (Senior Legal Adviser, International Commission of Jurists) With the rejection of the popular Business Responsible Initiative (RBI) in Switzerland, the parliamentary counterproposal is due to enter into force soon. The counterproposal introduces a new article 964 in the Swiss Code of Obligations to require...

By Laura Knöpfel (Senior Research Fellow Transnational Law Institute, Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London) and Carlos López (Senior Legal Adviser, International Commission of Jurists) On 29th November 2020, Switzerland narrowly rejected the popular Responsible Business Initiative (RBI) which would have obliged Swiss companies and the businesses they control anywhere in the world to respect human rights and environmental standards and introduced civil...

[Danilo Ruggero Di Bella is a lawyer at Bottega Di Bella.] The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic or Western Sahara is one of the seventeen Non-Self-Governing Territories (NSGTs) that remain yet to be decolonized, according to Chapter XI of the UN Charter. Originally, a Spanish protectorate who proclaimed its independence in 1976, Western Sahara has been recognized as a State by several countries. However, two third of its territory...

[Riddhi Joshi is a published author and a student in the final year of her law programme from Symbiosis Law School.] The border skirmish between India and China led to escalating tensions in the region. Numerous diplomatic and military-level talks have failed to ease the stand-off as both parties are keen on strengthening their geopolitical position. India’s fresh move to ban 118 apps of Chinese origin...

[Trung Nguyen is a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for Procedural Law.] With its appellate function came to a halt on the 10th of December 2019, the World Trade Organization (‘WTO’) is unlikely to be an attractive venue to settle international trade disputes at the moment or in the near future. The non-functioning of the WTO Appellate Body (‘AB’) presents the problem...

[Madhav Mallya is a lecturer at the Jindal Global Law School.] When a country dilutes its environmental and human rights protections in a bid to attract more investment, it is then said to be engaged in a “Race to the Bottom” competition.  A reading of India’s new Draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification makes it easier to get environmental clearances by excluding several projects from public consultation....

[Daniel Uribe is Programme Office of the Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Gender (SDCCG) Programme of the South Centre. The views contained in this brief are attributable to the author/s and do not represent the institutional views of the South Centre or its Member States. Any mistake or omission in this study is the sole responsibility of the author/s.] On the 6th of August 2020,...