Public Health Science and practice expanded during the course of the 20th century. Initially focused on controlling infectious disease through basic public health programs regulating water, sanitation and food, by 1988 the Institute of Medicine broadly declared that “public health is what we, as a society, do collectively to. assure the conditions for people to be healthy.” Commensurate with this definition, public health practitioners and policymakers today work on ;in enormous range of issues. The 2002 policy agenda of the American (...) Public Health Association reflects positions on genomics’ role in public health; national health and safety standards for child care programs; sodium in Americans’ diets; the health and safety of emergency rescue workers; and war in Central Asia and the Persian Gulf. (shrink)

Public Health Science and practice expanded during the course of the 20th century. Initially focused on controlling infectious disease through basic public health programs regulating water, sanitation and food, by 1988 the Institute of Medicine broadly declared that “public health is what we, as a society, do collectively to. assure the conditions for people to be healthy.” Commensurate with this definition, public health practitioners and policymakers today work on ;in enormous range of issues. The 2002 policy agenda of the American (...) Public Health Association reflects positions on genomics’ role in public health; national health and safety standards for child care programs; sodium in Americans’ diets; the health and safety of emergency rescue workers; and war in Central Asia and the Persian Gulf. (shrink)

The Faculty of Law at Masaryk University in Brno, the Czech Re- public, offers several fields of studies, one of them being the three-year Bachelor’s degree programme of International Trade Law. This programme includes two semesters of English for specific purposes which the students take in their first year of studies. However, as the programme is offered as a part time study, there are only 10 lessons of English taught within two days per semester. Preparing a course which (...) would develop the students’ language abilities and skills in the international trade law environment appears to be rather challenging under such conditions. In the paper I would like to share the ideas and experience from re- designing the syllabus for this course of English for international trade law. I describe the process from the original syllabus to a new one in which the teaching situation and students’ needs are taken into account. The course in- tends to include both product and process oriented goals and helps to improve general professional needs. In order to cover the field specific vocabulary, language practice and soft skills development within the above mentioned limited time frame, the students need to work both before and after the classes. The course is going to be piloted this year and we expect further modifications after its evaluation. (shrink)

Any foreign manufacturer desiring to market its products in Jordan has several courses open to it. The foreign manufacturer could establish a branch or wholly-owned subsidiary in Jordan or enter into a licensing or joint venture agreement with a company doing business in Jordan. If it wants a less significant presence, however, it is left with the alternative of having a local commercial agent market and sells its products. -/- The purpose of this article is to study certain aspects-exclusivity and (...) termination- of commercial agency according to the Jordanian law. The article is divided into four sections. Section two explains the general rules governing commercial agency in Jordan. Section three analyzes exclusivity of commercial agents. This section introduces the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), the basic instrument covering trade in services, and analyses the current commercial agencies regulation in Jordan and its relation to articles VIII and IX of GATS. Also, section two explores Jordan schedule of specific commitments under the GATS in order to shed light on the extent and limit of its obligations with regard to commercial agents. Section four discusses agency termination. Finally, the article concludes by summarizing the main. (shrink)

This book examines the labour standards provisions in a number of Regional and Bilateral Trade Agreements, and assesses the potential of using the relevant clauses in these trade agreements as a benchmark for a multilateral approach. Based on the lessons learned from the Regional model, the book proposes a Global Labour and Trade Framework Agreement (GLTFA) combined with a joint ILO/WTO enforcement mechanism to resolve the contentious issue of the link between the CLS and international (...) class='Hi'>trade. The history of the linkage between the Core Labour Standards (CLS) and international trade dates back roughly 150 years, and has recently become one of the most vexing issues facing policy-makers. At the heart of the debate is the question whether or not trade sanctions should be imposed on countries that do not respect the CLS as embodied in multilateral conventions administered by the International Labour Organization (ILO). Concretely, this would entail inserting a social clause in the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, and would trigger the imposition of sanctions on those countries that do not adhere to the CLS. Kofi Addo is a policy advisor to the Board of Governors of the International Baccalaureate Organisation. He holds a PhD in law from the University of Bern, Switzerland.. (shrink)

This volume provides a comprehensive analysis of the history, development and other legal aspects relating to International Medical Law and covers issues arising from not only the physician-patient relationship, but also with many wider juridical relations involved in the broader field of medical care in the international arena.00After a general introduction, the book examines the evolution of medical law in different civilizations that existed all over the world. It systematically describes the sources of this law from conventions, treaties (...) along with discussing the important role played by the courts, international institutions and other bodies related to the medical field. The comprehensive coverage includes public health law, international spread and prevention of diseases. This volume covers medical ethics and clinical ethics; considerations to facets of the medical professionals and patients relationship such as rights and responsibilities of the physicians, beneficence, consent, privacy, rights of patients and risk management. Also covered are issues of international concern like medical criminal activities, human and drug trafficking, trade in human organs, human medical research, as well as matters dealing with bio-technology in relation to bio-safety, bio-security, bio-genetics, bio-ethics, and the role of medical personnel in armed conflicts. (shrink)

In this paper the structuralist approach of theory reconstruction is applied to International Trade Theory. In the basic element the universal laws of the theory are stated and the general concepts are defined in terms of three sets and seven functions. Ricardo’s Theory of Comparative Advantage and the Factor Proportions Theory by Heckscher and Ohlin are reconstructed as specialisations of the basic element. Two intratheoretical constraints are formulated in order to ensure the consistency of the theory. A number (...) of empirical studies are shown to be paradigmatic, successful or questionable applications of International Trade Theory. The reconstruction allows the assessment of the theory from a metatheoretical angle and illuminates the logical interdependencies of its components. (shrink)

The question this article addresses is how the WTO supports and deals with digital trade. The article then analyzes how existing WTO agreements have dealt with digital trade. The article also addresses recent trade agreements particularly the USMCA.

L’émergence des marchés en Europe de l’Est, en Asie et celle du cyber-espace ne se fait pas avec la rapidité que beaucoup d’observateurs voudraient. La lenteur de ce développement provient de l’environnement institutionnel : les systèmes législatifs ne soutiennent pas les droits de propriété privée et ne font pas plus respecter les contrats. Ainsi, beaucoup soutiennent que les Etats doivent intensifier leurs efforts pour établir un droit commercial. En réalité, il faut réclamer un désengagement de l’Etat dans le droit commercial. (...) Tout au long de l’histoire, le recours efficace de l’activité commerciale est toujours provenu d’un système polycentrique de droit coutumier avec des querelles résolues par le biais de cours de commerce ou d’arbitrage eux-mêmes appuyés par des sanctions d’ostracisme imposées de façon privée, et il en est de même pour le droit commercial international aujourd’hui. Nous proposons une description des institutions et des processus du droit commercial international, suivie de discutions sur la nécessité d’un droit polycentrique et des caractéristiques du droit coutumier. Finalement, nous expliquons pourquoi nous devrions compter sur un système de droit coutumier polycentrique sans Etat pour l’émergence récente des marchés.The emergence of markets in Eastern Europe, Asia, and cyberspace is no occurring as rapidly as many observers would like. Slow development is a function of the institutional environment: legal systems do not support private property rights or enforce contracts. Thus, many contend that states must step up their efforts to establish commercial law. In reality, less state involvement in commercial law is called for. Throughout history effective recourse for commercial activity has been produced through a polycentric system of customary law with disputes resolved through merchant courts or arbitration backed by privately imposed ostracism sanctions, and the same is true for international commercial law today. A description of the institutions and processes of international commercial law is provided, followed by discussions of the desirability of polycentric law and the characteristics of customary law. Finally, an explanation is provided for why a stateless system of polycentric customary law should be relied upon in modern emerging markets. (shrink)

For centuries, international trade has been seen as essential to the wealth and power of nations. More recently we have started to understand its problematic role as an engine of distributive justice. In this compelling book Frank J. Garcia proposes a new way to evaluate, construct and manage international trade - one that is based on norms of economic justice, comparative advantage and national interest. Garcia examines three ways to conceptualize the problem of trade and (...) global justice, drawn from Rawlsian liberalism, communitarianism and consent theory. These approaches illustrate specific issues of importance to the way global justice has been theorized, offering a pluralistic mode of arguing for global justice and highlighting the unique modes of discourse we employ when engaging with global justice and their implications for conceptualizing and arguing the problem. Garcia suggests a new direction for trade agreements built around truly consensual trade negotiations and the kind of international economic system they would structure. (shrink)

Global justice is one of the most important subjects in law and political theory today. What principles of justice might tell us about the actual practices of the WTO and other international economic institutions is of vital importance to states and their citizens. This volume reflects the results of a symposium held at Tillar House, the ASIL headquarters in Washington, DC, in November 2008 which brought together philosophers, legal scholars, and economists to discuss the problems of understanding international (...) economic law from the standpoint of rights, justice, and economic efficiency. The book makes advances in developing the normative criterion for ecaluation and justifying the international economic legal order. (shrink)

Notwithstanding International Economic Law’s (IEL’s) inevitable distributional effects, IEL scholarship has had limited engagement with theoretical work on global distributive justice and fairness. In part this reflects the failure of global justice theorists to derive principles that can be readily applied to the concrete problems of IEL. This article bridges this gap, drawing on existing coercion-based accounts of global justice in political theory to propose a novel account of global distributive justice that both resolves problems within the existing theoretical (...) literature and can be directly applied to both explain and critique concrete issues in IEL, including in particular WTO law. By complementing existing coercion-based accounts with a more nuanced typology of international coercion, it distinguishes two morally salient classes of economically relevant measures: External Trade Measures (ETMs), which pursue their goals specifically through the regulation of international economic activity; and Domestic Economic Measures (DEMs), which do not. The distinctive intentional relationship between ETMs and the outsiders they affect means such measures require more stringent justification, in terms of global equality or other goals those outsiders themselves share; whereas DEMs can be justified under the principle of self-determination. Non-Product Related Production Processes and Methods (NPRPPMs) provide a case study to show how this framework can illuminate recurring problems in IEL. (shrink)

Access to medicines faces a new legal threat: “border enforcement” of drug patents. Using Brazil as an example, this article shows how the right to health depends on international trade. Border seizures of generic drugs present human rights and trade institutions with a unique challenge. Can public health advocates rise to meet it?

The book, providing a broad analysis of trade liberalization initiatives from the inception of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to 2013, is essential reading for trade lawyers, researchers, and students alike who are interested in getting a glimpse of the future directions for trade liberalization. The book attempts to ask and answer the following key question: What are the alternatives to trade liberalization in the WTO system?

In Philosophy and International Law, David Lefkowitz examines core questions of legal and political philosophy through critical reflection on contemporary international law. Is international law really law? The answer depends on what makes law. Does the existence of law depend on coercive enforcement? Or institutions such as courts? Or fidelity to the requirements of the rule of law? Or conformity to moral standards? Answers to these questions are essential for determining the truth or falsity of international (...) legal skepticism, and understanding why it matters. Is international law morally defensible? This book makes a start to answering that question by engaging with recent debates on the nature and grounds of human rights, the moral justifiability of the law of war, the concept of a crime against humanity, the moral basis of universal jurisdiction, the propriety of international law governing secession, and the justice of international trade law. (shrink)

Despite the tremendous progress in the development of scientific knowledge, the understanding of the causes of poverty and inequality, and the role of politics and governance in addressing modern challenges, issues such as social inclusion, poverty, marginalization and despair continue to be a reality across the world - and most often impact Indigenous Peoples. At the Margins of Globalization explores how Indigenous Peoples are affected by globalization, and the culture of individual choice without responsibility that it promotes, while addressing what (...) can be done about it. Though international trade and investment agreements are unlikely to go away, the inclusion of Indigenous rights provisions has made a positive difference. This book explains how these provisions operate and how to build from their limited success. (shrink)

This paper presents preliminary results of a survey experiment examining the effects of international illegality on public support for proposed public policies. It adds three specific dimensions to the existing literature. First, it tests whether the effects of international illegality differ depending on the international regime whose rules are violated, testing the effects of violations of both human rights and trade regimes. Second, it tests how far the involvement of international courts vary these effects. And (...) third, it examines these questions using parallel studies with UK and US respondents to test the robustness and generalisability of the relations identified. Results confirm that, across both jurisdictions, illegality under either trade or human rights regimes, and with or without the additional involvement of an international court, have a statistically significant negative effect of public support for a policy. They further identify a greater negative effect where an international court has confirmed this illegality, although this result is statistically significant in only one case. They do not identify any statistically significant difference in the support depressing effect of illegality under the trade regime compared to the human rights regime. (shrink)

Against expectations that the turn away from state socialism would likewise initiate a turn away from Marxist thought, recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in Marxism and its reassessment by a new generation of theorists. This book pursues that interest with specific reference to international law. It presents a sustained and fascinating exploration of the pertinence of Marxist ideas, concepts and analytical practices for international legal enquiry from a range of angles. Essays consider the relationship between (...) Marxism and critical approaches to international law, the legacy of Soviet international legal theory, the bearing of Marxism for the analysis of international trade law and human rights, and the significance for international legal enquiry of such Marxist concepts as the commodity, praxis and exploitation. (shrink)

Most new drugs are protected by pharmaceutical patents, which give the patent holder exclusive control over that drug’s supply for 20 years. When the patent term expires, the drug becomes available for generic production by any company. The resulting competition typically leads to dramatic reductions in price. In Brazil, generic drugs are on average 40% cheaper than reference or brand-name drugs. In the United States, the Federal Drug Administration reports up to 85% price differences. Consumers in India have witnessed more (...) than 100-fold price reduction for antiretroviral drugs due to generic production. Generics thus play a key role in broadening access to health care, mostly by driving costs down, both in the developing and developed world. (shrink)

The purpose of the paper is to examine free trade in Islamic law.

Global constitutionalism : positivism and international law -- International trade law : theories and practices in negotiations -- Making rules in the WTO : negotiations from Doha to Bali -- North-South controversy : developed and developing countries in the WTO -- Self-determination and minority rights under international law -- Human right : the interlocutor of global constitutionalism -- Asian approaches to international law -- The future of international law.

A theory of customary international law -- Case studies -- A theory of international agreements -- Human rights -- International trade -- A theory of international rhetoric -- International law and moral obligation -- Liberal democracy and cosmopolitan duty.

Once limited to issues in maritime and trade law, today the most recognizable examples of international law govern issues such as human rights, intellectual property, crimes against humanity and international armed conflicts. In many ways, this proliferation has been a welcomed development. However, when coupled with international law’s decentralized structure, this rapid proliferation has also posed problems for how we (and in particular judges) identify if, when, and where international law exists. This article puts forward (...) a novel, dignity-based account for how we answer this question: arguing that an international law exists if and only if it is consistent with respecting dignity. The upshot of this account is two-fold. First, it explains many features of international law that other theories leave unaccounted for or under-explained. And second, my dignity-based account provides for a mechanism through which the system can continue to be developed and improved. (shrink)

This chapter focuses on the implications of economically self‐interested behavior by voters and lobbyists, rather than important issues of irredentism, demagoguery, and security. It also focuses on the political problems of liberalizing migration between poor and wealthy states. Economists often support temporary migration in order to guard against potential adverse effects of brain drain. International organizations can serve to engage in surveillance, communication, and adjudication in order to enforce rules. Responsibility for international economic migration could be assigned to (...) an existing organization or to a new organization. The chapter addresses the possible features of a new international organization addressing migration. It also describes the present migration‐related functions of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), International Labor Organization (ILO), and World Trade Organization (WTO). The ILO has broad experience in a variety of labor and migration issues, and its tripartite structure facilitates negotiations that involve the concerns of industry and labor. (shrink)

International surrogacy is an increasingly common phenomenon and an important global health challenge. Legal rules are a key consideration for the participants in international surrogacy arrangements. In some cases the law can help to resolve the complex issues that arise in this context, but it is important to consider the role played by law in contributing to the complex conflicts that such arrangements can generate.

Lawyers tend to look to the law to resolve disputes and to create certainty about the rights and responsibilities of parties to relationships. There is a particularly acute need for certainty in the context of global trade in surrogacy services, both because of the number of parties who may be involved in creating familial relationships and because of the vulnerabilities created as a result of surrogacy arrangements. Participants in the Global Health Challenges conference were invited to consider to what (...) extent law is implicated in global health challenges — both in terms of how law might help to resolve the challenges, and, how law might contribute to or create these challenges. (shrink)

As part of the roundtable “Economic Sanctions and Their Consequences,” this essay examines unilateral coercive measures. These types of sanctions are applied outside the scope of Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, and were developed and refined in the West in the context of the Cold War. Yet the eventual collapse of the Berlin Wall did not herald the demise of unilateral sanctions; much to the contrary. While there are no incontrovertible data on the extent of these measures, one (...) can safely say that they target in some way a full quarter of humanity. In addition to being a major attack on the principle of self-determination, unilateral measures not only adversely affect the rights to international trade and to navigation but also the basic human rights of innocent civilians. The current deterioration of the situation, with the mutation of embargoes into blockades and impositions on third parties, is a threat to peace that needs to be upgraded in strategic concern. (shrink)

Lawyers write, blog and are otherwise producers of words; they structure public life through legal discourse and integrate all issues that reinforce legal reasoning. Even if one is inclined not to justify the power of their words in the context of a democratic theory, one is hardly able to challenge its public acceptance. But semiotic analyses harden the question whether these emperors wear nothing but robes. That attitude intensifies where medicine becomes increasingly relevant for legal discourse, as becomes clear where (...) for instance US political viewpoints bring bioethical issues to the Courts. One major theme in today’s medicine pertains to identity in its psychological, philosophical and social dimensions. Identity thus becomes a groundbreaking semiotic issue in law and medicine; both discourses are particular important to the otherness of the other. A US criminal law case interests here (Harrington v. State of Iowa, 2003; cited as: 659N.W.2d 509). The case is decided with “information about what the person has stored in his brain”. A chain of signs is involved: from “brain-function” to “brain-storage” via “brain-scan” to “brain-fingerprint”, for which the case became famous. A long series of signs and meanings belong here to intertwined discourses. Central is a particular sign in each discourse: “brain” means brain scan, and “fingerprint” means law! The two display trading mechanisms, which determine the otherness of the other and the self! The chain of signs in the Harrington case shows inter-disciplinarity in law and inter-discursivity among law and medicine. The trading itself underlines the semiotic dimensions in cyberspace, in particular the semiotics of the virtual (Hayles, Kurzweil) and their effects on legal discourse. (shrink)

This article deals with the gamut of international law. Empirical research on international law, charts three main factors—states and bureaucracies, private actors, and international institutions, specifically international tribunals. International law maintains the centrality of the state, which is also the functioning ground for various sub-state structures, governmental actors, and institutions. Private actors such as corporations and non-governmental organizations are instrumental in influencing the construction and outcome of international law. Regarding the relevance of international (...) laws, some opine that while states do infact deliver on obligations, they only choose those that are easy to comply by. Hence, efficiency becomes doubtful. Further, it is claimed that state's compliance only reflects its intentions, not a behavioral shift. These opinions merit questions regarding the relevance of international law. Studies in this field concern, broadly, international human rights law, criminal law, war laws, trade laws, investment law, and regulatory laws. (shrink)

This article conceptualizes corporate accountability under international law and introduces an analytical framework translating corporate accountability into seven core elements. Using this analytical framework, it then systematically assesses four models that could be used in a future business and human rights treaty: the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights model, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights model, the progressive model, and the transformative model. It aims to contribute to the BHR treaty negotiation process by clarifying different (...) options and possible trade-offs between them, while taking into account political realities. Ultimately, the article argues in favour of the BHR treaty embracing a progressive model of corporate accountability, which combines ambitious development of international law with realistic prospects of state support. (shrink)

Pour justifier leur activité, les premiers mercantilistes anglais présentent le commerce comme une activité naturelle, qui favorise la paix entre les nations et contribue au progrès de la civilisation. Ils ont en particulier recours à la lex mercatoria, notion héritée du Moyen Âge. L’idée d’un commerce mutuel de l’humanité, mise en avant dans les écrits de marchands, mais également chez un auteur comme Grotius, contraste ainsi avec les théories de la souveraineté liée à un territoire national chez des penseurs politiques (...) comme Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes et William Petty, ou à certains égards chez un juriste comme John Selden. Paradoxalement, alors que la constitution des empires coloniaux coïncide avec l’essor du grand négoce international, la liberté du commerce (free trade) est présentée par ses défenseurs comme une alternative à l’antagonisme entre les États et à la logique de domination induite par les théories modernes de l’imperium. Cette apparente contradiction entre la logique étatique et l’humanisme marchand – ou ce qui se présente comme tel – semble subsister dans les résurgences modernes de la lex mercatoria au XXe siècle. Pourtant, l’idée d’une source du droit indépendante de l’État et s’enracinant dans l’ancienneté des coutumes, l’uniformité des pratiques marchandes ou encore le jus gentium, relève en grande partie de la fable, et d’une construction idéologique visant à dissimuler la réalité des pratiques commerciales. De ce point de vue, la fable de la lex mercatoria joue très certainement un rôle important dans la constitution du topos du doux commerce et la promotion de la liberté des échanges par ceux qui en sont, directement ou indirectement, les principaux bénéficiaires. (shrink)

Drawing on philosophy, history, and critical theory, Unconditional Life introduces a new perspective on the significance of post-war international law developments. The book examines the public discourse regarding technological risk in World War II texts of unconditional surrender, in the World Trade Organisation's EC-Biotech dispute, and in the International Court of Justices' Nuclear Weapons Advisory Opinion. The volume describes international law in terms of its management of, and relation to, the risks associated with technological innovation in (...) war and in trade. It proposes that international law, too, is itself a kind of technology: one intended to manage the material and existential risks inherent in the creation of a new international, postcolonial, political community emerging out of the Second World War. Members of this community are imagined to possess a universal quality: humanness, which itself is underscored by a power of invention. Yoriko Otomo demonstrates how international lawyers' inability to adjudicate questions of large-scale technological risk is due to the competing and intractable claims of international law.Offering a feminist analysis of the political economy that has created this crisis of governance, the book provides a way of understanding the structural inequities that will need to be addressed if international law is to remain a relevant forum for the adjudication of war and trade into the 21st century. (shrink)

In our increasingly interactive and interdependent world, we are confronted almost daily with issues in international law: think, for instance, of the recent Pinochet and Öcalan cases, the crises in Iraq, Kosovo and East Timor, or the banana and hormone disputes in the WTO. Add to this continual reports about the activities of international organizations, from the UN to the European Union, and it becomes clear that international law is the order of the day. Whoever follows these (...) international developments, as I do, and whoever is committed to the construction of a solid legal order for the international community, finds himself constantly torn between hope and despair. Signs of hope in recent years include the approval of a statute for the International Criminal Court in Rome on July 17, 1998; the Pinochet decisions of the House of Lords of November 1998 and March 1999; and the coming into force of the Ottawa agreement on anti-personnel mines in March of 1999. Yet who could witness the course of events during the NATO bombing campaign in Yugoslavia, and the long period of UN inaction against the violence that broke out in East Timor following the referendum, without feeling some sense of desperation? The mood of the present day, however, should not prevent us from taking a long-term perspective. What kind of international legal order are we moving towards on the threshold of the twenty-first century? Building up a solid international legal order is probably one of the greatest challenges facing humanity at present. Our national legal systems are strongly developed and during the last fifty years, Western Europe has succeeded in constructing an EU legal order which has made possible a peaceful society, welfare and the integration of peoples in Europe. But where do we stand on the world level? Is international law not all too slowly limping behind globalization? And yet, the century we are looking back on has been the century in which international law and the law of international organizations flourished: in the framework of the League of Nations, and then the UN, we have succeeded in codifying, consolidating and developing international law in numerous multilateral treaties ranging from human rights and maritime law to international labour, trade and environmental norms. Never before had the world witnessed such an extensive network of international organizations . Never before did states make such intensive use of treaties for arranging their mutual concerns: more than 30,000 are registered at the UN. (shrink)

This article applies social entropy theory to international trade law, suggesting that observed shifts in world trading system towards disorder are the consequence of insufficient ‘energy’ inputs in the form of an effective, centralized legal framework and focused authoritative organization. In support of this claim, the article draws attention to recognized, substantive deficiencies in the World Trade Organization (WTO). These include trade round negotiation impasse, the rise of bilateralism, indeterminacy in the treaty texts and inadequate enforcement (...) procedures. These problems represent increasing disorganization, or entropy, in the world trading system, a phenomenon characterized most notably by growing income inequality between states and failure to achieve progress in further trade liberalization. While this article does not propose either specific predictions or comprehensive solutions to the dilemma of social entropy in the world trading system, it does suggest that a more robust, authoritative and trade-focused WTO is essential to counter the entropic tendencies within the supra-national trading system. This should help to ensure future growth and achieve the fuller distribution of economic prosperity through global trade. (shrink)

The Introduction is divided into three parts. Part I presents a brief history of the rules-based international order. It shows that-between 1945 and the first decade of the twenty-first century-the international system evolved from a primarily sovereignty-based order to a much more rules-based order. However, since about 2008 or 2010, we have witnessed significant backsliding towards a more sovereignty-based order, especially in the areas of international trade and international human rights law. Part II briefly surveys (...) the major, current threats to the rules-based international order. Finally, Part III outlines a potential strategy to mitigate those threats in the interest of preserving a rules-based international order that is consistent with liberal, humanitarian values. The several chapters in the book generally support the conclusion that the rules-based international order confronts significant challenges, but it is not unraveling-at least, not yet. Climate change is the biggest wild card in trying to predict the future. If the world's major powers-especially the United States and China-cooperate with each other to combat climate change, then other threats to the rules-based order should be manageable. If the world's major powers fail to address the climate crisis by 2040 or 2050, the other threats addressed in this volume may come to be seen as trivial in comparison. (shrink)

The nature and relationships between Law and State -- Law making, its sources and the role of State -- Law, legal systems, and legal families : synchronizing in the Globalized World -- Fundamental legal concepts : the distinctive features of law -- Constitutional law : the Supreme Law of the land -- Criminal law : State's authority in defining and penalizing crimes -- Torts : making people responsible & civilized -- Civil law and proceedings : public and private law -- (...) Law for doing business : the role of state and market -- Justice : the goal of political society -- The Rule of Law : foundation of modern political society -- Human rights and the state : grounds for personal and institutional relationships -- International trade : the centerpiece of growth and international relations -- Law, Globalization and international relations. (shrink)

The international community has long been affected by the political, philosophical and ethical issues surrounding the practice of tyrannicide, defined as the targeted killing of a tyrant. However, there exists no specific international legal instrument that concerns the practice of tyrannicide, rendering the legitimacy of the practice ambiguous. This paper aims to investigate the issue of tyrannicide and offers a number of speculative arguments concerning its legal-philosophical status. It finds that there are essentially two arms of international (...) legal jurisprudence that may regulate the practice of tyrannicide. The first is largely prohibitive and is based on the derived legal arguments against assassination involving the element ofperfidy, relevant extradition law, provisions in the Hague, Geneva and New York Conventions, and the prohibition on the use of force in the UN Charter. The second position, though far more radical and speculative, is more permissive regarding the moral legitimacy of tyrannicide. This position is based on arguments from the classical international theorists Gentili, Grotius and Vattel, contemporary human rights standards, the principle of humanitarian intervention, the duty to protect, and legal category of hostis hutnani generis. It is argued that though the vast majority of international legal principles are indicative ofthe illegality oftyrannicide, that the practice may nevertheless be philosophically legitimated under humanitarian principles. (shrink)

State derecognition, defined as the withdrawal of recognition from a putative state, has been more impactful as a diplomatic subculture in the last decades than is often assumed. Recent practice suggests that when states engage in derecognition, they do not mechanically assess whether a state no longer fulfils the traditional criteria for statehood, but rather employ derecognition as a tool of foreign policy, tailored to enhance their own economic and geopolitical interests. The bargaining dynamics of derecognition and “rental recognition” policies (...) adopted by a range of smaller states create a precarious hostage-like situation for the targeted entities who helplessly watch their international status being traded in a recognition market. As the success of some claims to statehood risks beings reduced to a matter of pricing, a process of commodification emerges: state recognition is granted to the “highest bidder” regardless of factual reality or legal considerations. With this backdrop, the present paper seeks to clarify how international law conceptualizes derecognition and its hypotheses of legality, offering an overview of contemporary events of derecognition and expedient shifts in recognition to clarify the role and deficiencies of international law as it stands before the emerging phenomenon of “statehood commodification”. (shrink)

In our increasingly interactive and interdependent world, we are confronted almost daily with issues in international law: think, for instance, of the recent Pinochet and Öcalan cases, the crises in Iraq, Kosovo and East Timor, or the banana and hormone disputes in the WTO. Add to this continual reports about the activities of international organizations, from the UN to the European Union, and it becomes clear that international law is the order of the day. Whoever follows these (...) international developments, as I do, and whoever is committed to the construction of a solid legal order for the international community, finds himself constantly torn between hope and despair. Signs of hope in recent years include the approval of a statute for the International Criminal Court in Rome on July 17, 1998; the Pinochet decisions of the House of Lords of November 1998 and March 1999; and the coming into force of the Ottawa agreement on anti-personnel mines in March of 1999. Yet who could witness the course of events during the NATO bombing campaign in Yugoslavia, and the long period of UN inaction against the violence that broke out in East Timor following the referendum, without feeling some sense of desperation? The mood of the present day, however, should not prevent us from taking a long-term perspective. What kind of international legal order are we moving towards on the threshold of the twenty-first century? Building up a solid international legal order is probably one of the greatest challenges facing humanity at present. Our national legal systems are strongly developed and during the last fifty years, Western Europe has succeeded in constructing an EU legal order which has made possible a peaceful society, welfare and the integration of peoples in Europe. But where do we stand on the world level? Is international law not all too slowly limping behind globalization? And yet, the century we are looking back on has been the century in which international law and the law of international organizations flourished: in the framework of the League of Nations, and then the UN, we have succeeded in codifying, consolidating and developing international law in numerous multilateral treaties ranging from human rights and maritime law to international labour, trade and environmental norms. Never before had the world witnessed such an extensive network of international organizations . Never before did states make such intensive use of treaties for arranging their mutual concerns: more than 30,000 are registered at the UN. (shrink)

This book reviews and presents antitrust law compliance programmes from different angles. These programmes have been increasingly implemented and refined by firms over recent years, and various aspects of this topic have been researched. The contributions in this book extend beyond the treatment of legal issues and show how lawyers, economists, psychologists, and business scholars can help design antitrust law compliance programmes more effectively and run them more efficiently.

Featuring contributions from renowned scholars,_ A Companion to European Union Law and International Law_ presents a comprehensive and authoritative collection of essays that addresses all of the most important topics on European Union and international law. Integrates the fields of European Union law and international law, revealing both the similarities and differences Features contributions from renowned scholars in the fields of EU law and international law Covers a broad range of topical issues, including trade, institutional (...) decision-making, the European Court of Justice, democracy, human rights, criminal law, the EMU, and many others. (shrink)

At the heart of the tension between state autonomy and international law is the question of whether states should willingly restrict their freedom of action for the sake of international security, human rights, trade, communication, and the environment. David Hume offers surprising insights to answer this question. He argues that the same interests in cooperation arise among individuals as well as states and that their interactions should be regulated by the same principles. Drawing on his model of (...) dynamic coordination, I will reconstruct the Humean case for developing international law into a more robust legal system and also highlight the limitation of Hume’s account of justice for such a reconstructive project. Hume’s lessons are enduring; we must strengthen the essential features of international law that allow states and individuals to reap the benefits of its protections, such as nonoptional rules that articulate a moral minimum, courts with compulsory jurisdiction, and stronger mechanisms of enforcement. (shrink)

The application of semiotics in trade mark law is an interdisciplinary endeavour in its infancy. The author traces its genesis in recent years and situates it within the context of general theoretical approaches, in particular of an interdisciplinary kind, appearing in the trade mark law literature in the past. The purposes for which such theories are applied, and questions of methodology arising from this, are examined. In particular, it is observed that semiotic theory has, by and large, been (...) used for the purpose of debating legal policy in trade mark law (especially in the United States), and that this has given rise to argument about the extent to which semiotic theory can exert any normative force of its own upon the law. This article offers a different perspective. It is sought to demonstrate the usefulness of theoretical semiotics in solving trade mark law questions in practice. The author emphasises that this involves no threat to orthodox legal problem-solving methodology (whatever one may think of the orthodoxy), and in particular does not require the normative use of semiotic theory. Taking as a starting point the concept of ‹trade mark use’, and having regard to trade mark law and literature in Europe, the United States and Australia, the author proceeds to demonstrate the proposed approach by reference to some current problems in trade mark infringement. (shrink)

Is there a major international crime that the general public has never heard of or even thought about? The answer to this question might be surprising—it is the illicit art trade. The purpose of this article is to analyse the criminal aspect of the global art trade with a special focus on the region of South East Asia. In the first part of the paper, which acts as a backdrop for the rest of the article, the author (...) explains the history and general issues regarding the trade of cultural artefacts, briefly explaining the stages in the illicit antiquities trade, with a special focus on the question of international law regulations, of which he provides a critical overview. The second and third parts of the paper are devoted to a more profound analysis of the antiquities journey from illicit to licit. In the second part of the paper the author provides a case study of the first part of the voyage of Cambodian, Vietnamese and Indian antiquities, i.e. from the source country to the port of first shipment, examining the places and the middlemen they pass on their way. The third part of the paper is devoted to the analysis of legal provisions regulating the art trade in Hong Kong—a global art hub—notably the ‘market overt exception’, which allows buyers in good faith to keep the illicitly obtained cultural objects in spite of any claims made by the previous owners. In the fourth part of the paper the author shows why restitution of looted antiquities is so difficult, analysing a number of successful and unsuccessful attempts. The concluding part of the paper is devoted to the author’s critical overview of the various attempts and suggestions on the curtailing of the illicit international art trade. In the coda the author provides a case study of the journey undertaken by Cambodian antiquities. (shrink)

Even though Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become a widely accepted concept promoted by different stakeholders, business corporations' internal strategies, known as corporate self-regulation in most of the weak economies, respond poorly to this responsibility. Major laws relating to corporate regulation and responsibilities of these economies do not possess adequate ongoing influence to insist on corporate self-regulation to create a socially responsible corporate culture. This book describes how the laws relating to CSR could contribute to the inclusion of CSR principles (...) at the core of the corporate self-regulation of these economies in general, without being intrusive in normal business practice. It formulates a meta-regulation approach to law, particularly by converging patterns of private ordering and state control in contemporary corporate law from the perspective of a weak economy. It proposes that this approach is suitable for alleviating regulators' limited access to information and expertise, inherent limitations of prescriptive rules, ensuring corporate commitment, and enhance the self-regulatory capacity of companies. This book describes various meta-regulation strategies for laws to link social values to economic incentives and disincentives, and to indirectly influence companies to incorporate CSR principles at the core of their self-regulation strategies. It investigates this phenomenon using Bangladesh as a case study. (shrink)

This book examines the most controversial issues concerning the use of pre-drafted clauses in fine print, which are usually included in consumer contracts and presented to consumers on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. By applying a multi-disciplinary approach that combines consumer's psychology and seller's drafting power in the logic of efficiency and good faith, the book provides a fresh and unconventional analysis of the existing literature, both theoretical and empirical. Moving from the unconscionability doctrine, it criticizes (and in some cases refutes) its (...) main conclusions based on criteria which are usually invoked to sustain the need for public intervention to protect consumers, and specifically related to Law (contract complexity), Psychology (consumer lack of sophistication criterion) and Economics (market structure criterion). It also analyzes the effects of different regulations, such as banning vexatious clauses or mandating disclosure clauses, showing that none of them protect consumers, but in fact prove to be harmful when consumers are more vulnerable, that is whenever sellers can exploit some degree of market power. In closing, the book combines these disparate aspects, arguing that the solution (if any) to the problem of consumer exploitation and market inefficiency associated with the use of contracts of adhesion in these contexts cannot be found in removing or prohibiting hidden clauses, but instead has to take into account the effects of these clauses on the contract as a whole. (shrink)

Over the last 20+ years, globalization has made international trade and investment more efficient and productive. In the absence of coordinated global regulatory regimes, it has also made multinational corporations (MNCs) impervious to social concerns in the countries where they operate. There is considerable debate in the academic, political, and business arena as to the causes of the apparently inequitable distribution of benefits between labor and capital. Notwithstanding, the relative merits of this debate, and facing tremendous societal pressure, (...) companies have adopted voluntary codes of conduct to ensure that workers making products for them in poor and developing countries are protected from hazardous working conditions and receive wages that meet local laws and market conditions. These codes, however, suffer from a lack of credibility and proof of substantive compliance. A new type of nongovernmental organization (NGO) has emerged that monitors a company's compliance with prespecified standards and provides assurance to the external stakeholders that the company has fulfilled its voluntary obligations. From an historical perspective, this has been an innovative phenomenon where the monitoring organization purports to act as an honest broker to ensure all concerned that the company/industry has fulfilled its obligations. In this article, we undertake a thorough examination of two such organizations, that is, Fair Labor Association, and Social Accountability International, that have played a pioneering role in bridging the gap between societal expectations and corporate performance. We examine their governance structures, operating procedures, monitoring standards, and public disclosure of findings, and above all, their success in improving the level of corporate compliance with their self‐created codes or standards. Unfortunately, our findings and conclusions are disappointing. In our view, the two groups have mostly failed to meet their avowed goals. Rather than using their NGO status to help companies improve their code compliance, they have suffered from managerial capture and have been reduced to corporate apologists. (shrink)