77908 - International Trade and Investment Law

Learning outcomes

The course is aimed at providing the students with the basic knowledge of the multiateral trade system (the WTO system) and international investment law. The course is aimed at conferring the students the ability to recognize the interests underlying those rules and legal instruments to enforce them, especially through the dynamics of argumentation emerging from international litigation. Course contents Overview of the WTO System The dispute settlement mechanism of the WTO The most favoured nation clause The national treatment principle GATT Article XX: trade & non-trade values The WTO TBT Agreement The precautionary principle and the SPS Agreement The New Government Procurement Agreement Tha General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) The Trade-Related Intellectueal Property Rights Agreement (TRIPs) China in the WTO DSM: The cases concerning natural resources WTO & Climate Change WTO & Energy The New generation of EU Free Trade Agreements: from Singapore to Canada, from Korea to the United States Transparency & International Economic Law Concept of investment and investors Principles of non discrimination and of fair and equitable treatment Direct & indirect expropriation Interpretation and Application of Investment Treaties Investment dispute settlement mechanisms Transparency in investment arbitration proceedings Investment & sustainability issues: protection of foreign investment & environmental and human rights protection

Course contents

Introduction to International Economic Law: International Trade Law; International Investment Law; International Financial Law

The Multilateral Trade System: the WTO 

The dispute settlement mechanism of the WTO

The crisis of the WTO Appellate Body

The most favoured nation clause

The national treatment principle

GATT Article XX: trade & non-trade values

GATT Article XXI: national security

The WTO TBT Agreement

The precautionary principle and the SPS Agreement

The New Government Procurement Agreement

Tha General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)

The Trade-Related Intellectueal Property Rights Agreement (TRIPs)

Reforming the WTO

The New generation of EU Free Trade Agreements: from Singapore to Canada, from Korea to the United States

The EU / UKraine and the EU / South Korea panel reports

The EU / China Comprehensive Agreement on Investments

Transparency & International Economic Law

Concept of investment and investors

Principles of non discrimination and of fair and equitable treatment

Direct & indirect expropriation

Interpretation and Application of Investment Treaties

Investment dispute settlement mechanisms (ICSID; UNCTAD; UNCITRAL)

From ISDS to the project for a Multilateral Investment Court

Transparency in investment arbitration proceedings

Investment & sustainability issues: protection of foreign investment & environmental and human rights protection

Readings/Bibliography

For students attending the lectures the programm will be developed during the course, an the materials will be provided during the lectures.

For students not attending the lectures:

Peter Van den Bossche, Denise Prévost, Essentials of WTO Law, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2021

M. Sornarajah, The International Law on Foreign Investment, Cambridge University Press, 2020

Teaching methods

Lectures 

For students who did not previously attend a course of International Law, we advise the following reading: Jan Klabbers, International Law, Cambridge University Press, 2020.

 

Assessment methods

oral exam

Teaching tools

materials indicated during the lectures, power point presentations, videos

Office hours

See the website of Elisa Baroncini