Thursday, June 17, 2010

Call for Submissions: TDM Special Issue on Intersections Between Investment Treaty Law and the WTO World

Transnational Dispute Management has issued a call for papers for a special issue on "Intersections Between Investment Treaty Law and the WTO World." Here's the call:

Walid Ben Hamida and Todd Weiler, will be editing a TDM Special Issue covering intersections between investment treaty law and the WTO world.

Contributions are invited from prospected authors with unpublished or previously published articles, conference papers, research papers, case studies dealing with this issue.

Here are some issues that could be examined:

  • The TRIMs agreement: a comment
  • The relationships between GATS and investment agreements
  • The GATS Agreement: A comment
  • Telecommunication in WTO law and in investment law
  • MFN in WTO law and in investment law
  • National Treatment in WTO law and in investment law
  • Transparency in WTO law and in investment law
  • Concurrence between WTO dispute settlement body and investment arbitration
  • Breach of WTO Obligations as Breach of Investment Treaties
  • BITs, “Safeguards” Clauses, Health and Safety Measures, and the Relevance of GATT Article XX Jurisprudence
  • Performance Requirements in Investment Arbitration and before WTO dispute settlement body
  • Does MFN pick up the GATS, especially Arts. VI and VIII, the Basic Telecommunications Agreement and the Telecoms Reference paper, and/or market-opening commitments
  • GATS MFN clause and investment arbitration
  • The Doha round and investment matters
  • Trade measures before investment arbitration
  • Relationships beween TRIPs and investment agreement
  • The relevance of WTO law in interpreting BIT rules
  • State trading entreprises in WTO law and in investment law
  • Subnational entities in WTO law in investment Law
  • Amicus before WTO and before investment arbitration
  • Energy and WTO Law
  • The Use of ICSID Jurisprudence in a Recent Ruling of the WTO Appellate Body: The US-Final Anti-Dumping Measures on Stainless Steel Report WT/DS344/AB/R (Apr. 30, 2008)
  • Energy charter Treaty and WTO law
  • NAFTA and WTO Law
  • Financial crisis measures, BITs and the WTO – are there real claims based on the measures taken by the US, the UK and others in response to the crisis that began in 2008 (or just hyperbole) and, if so, how are they affected by the presence or absence of safeguards clauses and prudential measures exceptions?
  • Why are there so few WTO disputes related to services measures but so many BITs disputes related to services investments?
  • A comparative consideration of the role of the WTO Secretariat and the role of the ICSID Secretariat with respect to disputes.
  • Investment and Doha – does the probable failure of the Doha Round to open investment access (and indeed the probable failure of Doha itself) have an impact on the growth of investment agreements and investment chapters of FTAs?
  • Capital Controls, Restrictions on FX Convertibility and Transfer Restrictions, and Sovereign Debt Defaults – Comparison of WTO and BIT treatment
  • Why were there no WTO complaints against Argentina?
  • Chinese BITs and WTO Obligations – Consistency, Growing Liberalization or Paper Tigers?

Dr. Walid Ben Hamida

University of Evry Val d'Essonne & Sciences Po, Paris (France)

Email: benhamida [at] gmail (dot) com

Todd Weiler

treatylaw.com

If you have any questions or suggestions for the special, please contact Dr. Walid Ben Hamida. Deadline is August 30, 2010