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

The course of International Trade and Investment Law is financed by the European Union as Jean Monnet Module, and called Re-Globe - Reforming the Global Economic Governance: The EU for SDGs in International Economic Law

Programme of the Course 

 Introduction: International Economic Law, the European Union and the Sustainable Development Goals

The WTO System: The Institutional Structure

The WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism: Basic Aspects

The WTO Appellate Body: Functioning and Crisis

The EU Approach to the WTO Appellate Body Crisis: The Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA)

The Principle of Non-Discrimination: The Most-Favoured Nation Clause and the Principle of National Treatment

Non-Trade Values in the WTO System: GATT Article XX

Non-Trade Values in the WTO System: GATT Article XXI

Economic Sanctions and International Economic Law: The Case of the Sanctions against Russia

The Trade and Sustainable Development Chapters in the EU Free Trade Agreements (FTAs)

Bilateral Dispute Settlement Mechanisms in the EU FTAs: the Ukraine – Export of Certain Wood Products Case and the EU/Korean Labour Standards Case

The WTO TBT Agreement and its Case-Law

The SPS Agreement and its case law

WTO Trade Remedies

The GATS Agreement

The WTO TRIPS Agreement, Health Concerns and Waivers

Investment Law: Basic Principles and Standards

Settlement of International Investment Disputes

Due Diligence and International Investment Law

The EU Approach to Investor-State Dispute Settlement: EU practice in International Investment Arbitration - The EU Project for a Multilateral Investment Court

The EU Approach on Transparency in International Litigation on Investments

The EU and the ‘Greening’ of the Energy Charter Treaty: towards the Protection and Promotion of Clean Energy

EU Investment Policy: International Investment law and the Right to Regulate

The European Parliament and International Economic Law Agreements

EU Unilateral Instruments: Enforcement Regulation; the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM); the EU Anti-Coercion Instrument, the EU Trade Barriers Regulation

Readings/Bibliography

For students attending the Re-Globe lectures the programme will be developed during the course, an the materials will be provided during the lectures. The uploading of the materials and of the power point used during the lectures will be made at the end of each week of lectures on the Virtuale platform

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

See also the dedicated Re-Globe website Re-Globe - Reforming the Global Economic Governance: The EU for SDGs in International Economic Law (unibo.it) [https://site.unibo.it/reglobe/en], and the Re-Globe Twitter account https://twitter.com/ReGlobe_jm

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

Attending students can choose to deliver the exam preparing a video on a topic agreed with the Professor.

The video, together with the script, will be assessed considering:

- the ability to analyse international practice and case law;

- the ability to link the different parts of the course programme;

- the ability to elaborate critical arguments;

- the accuracy of verbal exposure and property of language.

Some video will be selected to be uploaded on the Re-GLobe website.

Students can also choose to deliver the exam preparing, on a topic previously agreed with the Professor, a presentation supported by a ppt. The presentation must be of twenty minutes.

The presentation will be assessed considering: 

- the ability to analyse international practice and case law;

- the ability to link the different parts of the course programme;

- the ability to elaborate critical arguments;

- the accuracy of verbal exposure and property of language.

 

Teaching tools

materials indicated during the lectures, power point presentations, videos

Office hours

See the website of Elisa Baroncini