Course description
International law plays a significant role for the integration of the global economy. The course offers insight into one main branch of international economic law, international trade Law with a particular focus on the World Trade Organization, which covers trade in goods and services. Selected areas of substantive law will be studied during the course, such as obligations concerning market access, non-discrimination, subsidies, dumping and the relationship between international trade law and other areas of international law. Dispute settlement is a central element in international trade, and the course will provide in-depth study of selected cases and examine strengths and weaknesses of the dispute settlement systems. Negotiations to reform existing agreements and to establish new obligations are central in international trade. The course will examine how such negotiations are organised and discuss how negotiations may proceed in the future.
Achievement Requirements
Knowledge:
Students are expected to have thorough knowledge of the following topics based on the reading list:
- The nature and structure of the World Trade Organization
- The characteristics of the WTO dispute settlement system
- The rules on most-favored-nation treatment and national treatment in the context of GATT and GATS
- Rules on tariffs on trade in goods
- Rules on quantitative restrictions on and technical barriers to trade in goods (the TBT Agreement and the SPS Agreement)
- Rules on market access under GATS
- Rules on dumping and subsidies
- Rules concerning general exceptions in GATT and GATS
- The WTO and developing countries, the environment, labour standards, and human rights
Skills and general competence:
The course will give an understanding of the nature and function of the treaties and international institutions governing international trade. Students will attain in-depth understanding of selected areas of international trade law, with a particular focus on the basic rules of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. They read and discuss WTO cases and fact patterns. Students are trained to function as a lawyer in trade disputes, as a negotiator in trade negotiations, and as a consultant on international trade law. They may pursue careers in the Ministry of Trade, private law firm, or at the WTO.
Main literature
Michael Trebilcock, Robert Howse and Antonia Eliason, The Regulation of International Trade, 4th edition, Routledge, 2013, pages 1-226, 258-410, 472-513, 605-755.
Total amount of pages: 563 pages.