Regulatory Autonomy In International Economic Law

Regulatory Autonomy in International Economic Law provides the first extensive legal analysis of Australia’s trade and investment treaties in the context of their impact on national regulatory autonomy. This thought-provoking study offers compelling lessons for not only Australia but also countries around the globe in relation to pressing current problems, including the uncertain future of the World Trade Organization and widespread concerns about the legitimacy of investor–State dispute settlement.

"International commitments may sit uneasily with national pressures in the best of times. This age of economic uncertainty brings these tensions into sharper relief. This volume draws together thirteen analyses of this tension in a wide array of contexts, including each of the three main pillars of the World Trade Organization, international investment law and arbitration, and the international financial institutions. The essays feature internationally recognised experts addressing topical examples of international economic law obligations clashing with domestic political interests. For example, Professor Robert Howse, of New York University Law School, addresses issues of globalisation and whether international and national interests can in today's world be considered separate, while Ko-Yung Tung, former Director-General of the World Bank, looks at trends in investment treaty arbitration and considers what the future may hold in light of the recent financial crisis, the rise of China as an economic powerhouse, and other factors"--

This book is both breathtaking in its scope and impressive in its attention to legal and institutional detail in situating developing countries in the evolving body of international economic law. Essays in this volume canvas most important areas of international economic law, including international trade law, international financial regulation, the regulation of foreign direct investment and multinational corporations, foreign aid, the enforcement of human rights standards and core international labour standards on multinational corporations, international enforcement of anti-corruption conventions, international competition law, international intellectual property rights, and international environmental law. A pervasive theme, compellingly developed, in most of these papers is the asymmetric structure of international institutions that generate rules in these various areas, in which developing countries are mostly rule takers, rather than equal participants. The current global financial crisis may provide a welcome opportunity for re-evaluating these institutional asymmetries. In any such re-evaluation, this book will provide a veritable cornucopia of constructive new insights.

This book considers how the interplay between multilateral and preferential liberalisation of trade in services increasingly raises concerns, both from the perspective of the beneficiaries of such liberalisation (whose rights are uncertain) and that of regulators (whose regulatory autonomy is constrained). The author shows how these concerns lead to vast underutilisation of, and strong prejudices against, the benefits of services liberalisation. The book meticulously analyses and compares the EU's obligations under the GATS and the services chapters of several RTAs to finally assess the merits of the raised concerns.

International commitments may sit uneasily with national pressures in the best of times. This age of economic uncertainty brings these tensions into sharper relief. This volume draws together thirteen analyses of this tension in a wide array of contexts, including each of the three main pillars of the World Trade Organization, international investment law and arbitration, and the international financial institutions. The essays feature internationally recognised experts addressing topical examples of international economic law obligations clashing with domestic political interests. For example, Professor Robert Howse, of New York University Law School, addresses issues of globalization and whether international and national interests can in today's world be considered separate, while Ko-Yung Tung, the former Director-General of the World Bank, looks at trends in investment treaty arbitration and considers what the future may hold in light of the recent financial crisis, the rise of China as an economic powerhouse, and other factors.

Standardization is a classic form of rulemaking. Nonetheless, it is notoriously diffuse and gives rise to questions and debate; in particular over the standards' normativity, legitimacy and nature - whether public or private, national or international. Moritz J. K. Blenk applies a policy-orientated approach to international law to comparatively analyze the role of private rulemaking within the context of international economic integration in the World Trade Organization and the European Union. He thereby aims to elucidate the opaque phenomenon of private standardization from a legal perspective and, more profoundly, shed new light on economic integration.

Free Markets and Social Regulation: A Reform Agenda of the Global Trading System has a twofold purpose to consider what has so far been accomplished in this vital mission in the field of international economic law, and to prescribe some solutions to continuing problems. This latter endeavor amounts to a coherent and integrated plan that will enhance the acceptability of free markets to governments, traders, and other stakeholders alike.

A collection of 13 previously published articles.