B2429 - Re-Globe – 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 - Re-Globe is co-funded by the European Union. It is one of the three courses of the Jean Monnet Chair "SustainEUorPlanet - The EU as a Global Actor in the International Law for the Sustainable Development of the Planet – Advancing Fairness, Expanding Accountability and Promoting Security". SustainEUorPlanet is the development of the Re-Globe Jean Monnet Module (2022-2025).

The SustainEUorPlanet Jean Monnet Chair Project offers an interdisciplinary and critical analysis of international policies and legal frameworks of the European Union aimed at economic and social equity, respect for the environment, access to clean energy and essential goods, and the search for security to overcome geopolitical tensions and asymmetries. SustainEUorPlanet has a dual purpose. On the one hand, it offers a set of activities that provide for the training of an excellent management and academic class, involving EU, national and international officials, politicians, NGOs, companies and public administrations. On the other hand, the Jean Monnet Chair project studies and analyses the role of the EU as a global player in constantly promoting a sustainability agenda for trade, environment, energy and climate policies, highlighting the importance of the responsibility of economic actors and the relevance that EU citizens can have in shaping and enforcing the EU's external instruments through participation and transparency. Equal attention is paid to security policy in the context of the global economy (see the project's webpage and LinkedIn account).

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

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

Case-Law and Practice of the Bilateral Dispute Settlement Mechanisms in the EU FTAs

The WTO TBT Agreement and its Case-Law (The EU-Palm Oil Cases)

The SPS Agreement and its case law

WTO Trade Remedies

The GATS Agreement

Investment Law: Basic Principles and Standards

Settlement of International Investment Disputes

International Investment Law and Cultural Heritage

The EU Project of Multilateral Investment Court (MIC)

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 Anti-Coercion Instrument, the EU Trade Barriers Regulation; the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM); the EU Deforestation Regulation; the EU Batteries Regulation

Readings/Bibliography

For students attending the SustainEUorPlanet 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 SustainEUorPlanet website and the previous Re-Globe website ; the SustainEUorPlanet LinkedIn account and the previous Re-Globe X account.

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 deliver the exam also according to the indications given during the lectures.

Non-attending students have to prepare the exam studying the indicated 2 textbooks.

Teaching tools

materials indicated during the lectures, power point presentations, videos

Links to further information

https://site.unibo.it/sustaineuorplanet/en

Office hours

See the website of Elisa Baroncini