Gabrielle Marceau

• University of Geneva

This is a book review of: Dr Hassan Fartousi, A Portrait of Trade in Cultural Goods in Respect of the WTO and the UNESCO Instruments in the Contexts of Hard-Law and Soft-Law, Theses Series No. 40, Geneva: Globethics Publications, 2023. 493p. Online ISBN: 978-2-88931-529-1

This article aims at reviewing the practice of ‘initiatives’ by Intergovernmental Organizations ( igo s) when responding to crises or the unforeseen needs of their respective memberships. It forms part of a broader research project on the role of igo s in international law where more than 100 initiatives were identified so far, focusing on 14 igo s...

The World Trade Organization’s expansion in terms of its activities is becoming increasingly demanding for Members. Members may not express their acceptance or rejection to every statement or action taking place in the WTO, and they may remain silent to intentionally signify their position. This article examines the legal significance of Members’ s...

Legitimacy of Unseen Actors in International Adjudication - edited by Freya Baetens August 2019

Une critique récurrente du GATT était son manque d’ouverture aux considérations non-commerciales, et en particulier l’environnement. Pour l’Organe d’appel, le nouveau préambule de l’Accord de Marrakech, et la décision des Membres de créer un Comité du commerce et de l’environnement et d’y négocier des critères sur la cohérence entre commerce et env...

Several types of changes can take place between the conclusion of a treaty and when its provisions call for interpretation, e.g. changes in the political, social, historical or legal context; technological changes; linguistic changes; or changes in the law. Traditionally, interpreters refused to consider changes that may have occurred since the tre...

Cambridge Core - International Trade Law - The Legitimacy of International Trade Courts and Tribunals - edited by Robert Howse

Une critique récurrente du GATT était son manque d’ouverture aux considérations non-commerciales, et en particulier l’environnement. Pour l’Organe d’appel, le nouveau préambule de l’Accord de Marrakech, et la décision des Membres de créer un Comité du commerce et de l’environnement et d’y négocier des critères sur la cohérence entre commerce et env...

This chapter focuses on the disciplines on export restrictions found in the WTO agreements as well as relevant jurisprudence by WTO panels and the Appellate Body in general and in particular in the context of export restrictions on natural resources. In addition, the wider impact of export restrictions is examined in the areas of sustainable develo...

This article focuses on the disciplines on export restrictions found in the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements as well as relevant jurisprudence by WTO panels and the Appellate Body, both in general and in particular in the context of export restrictions on natural resources. The article also explores alternative approaches for increasing th...

In the present day scenario, national and international policies are being developed to tackle the issue of climate change. This chapter discusses the relevant WTO rules and their interaction with different type of trade related Greenhouse Gas policies and regulations adopted nationally and internationally to mitigate climate change.

How did a treaty that emerged in the aftermath of the Second World War, and barely survived its early years, evolve into one of the most influential organisations in international law? This unique book brings together original contributions from an unprecedented number of eminent current and former GATT and WTO staff members, including many current...

As explained in the Preface, this book evolved out of a conference held in 2011 to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the Legal Affairs Division (LAD). When the idea of publishing a book to commemorate and expand on that event was raised, it became clear that no history of law and lawyers in the WTO would be complete without discussion of, and...

I was fortunate to start working in the Legal Affairs Division (LAD) of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) on 11 September 1994, at a very exciting time in the history of the GATT. I was thirty-four years old, and was brought in as junior professional. My post-doctorate dream of working in the GATT legal service was coming true – tha...

This introductory chapter outlines the development of the role of law and lawyers in the multilateral trading system from its birth in 1948 until today. It recounts the various ways that law and lawyers have been included (and sometimes excluded) first in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and then in the World Trade Organization (WT...

In this short response, we offer some additional context to the appointment of government officials as World Trade Organization (WTO) panelists, some information on the role of the Secretariat and areas of cross-fertilization. The Involvement of Panel Members Working for Government Pauwelyn emphasizes that a significant proportion of WTO panel memb...

The Appellate Body (AB) Report in EC-Seal Products has potential ramifications for the environmental or social concerns in the World Trade Organization. It refines the jurisprudence on the balance between members' market access obligations and their right to give priority consideration to non-trade concerns under the General Agreement on Tariffs an...

Since the advent of the global financial crisis in 2008, the issue of how exchange rates relate to international trade has been a frequent subject of debate. In particular, there has been widespread speculation that the World Trade Organization (WTO) Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) could be called upon to adjudicate a dispute surrounding Members’ exc...

The search for an appropriate balance between trade liberalization and regulatory autonomy lies at the heart of the WTO system. In this paper, the authors examine the relationship between three WTO Agreements regulating trade in goods - the GATT 1994, the SPS Agreement, and the TBT Agreement - and explore how these treaties, individually and togeth...

This article provides a comprehensive overview of the use of World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and case law by other dispute settlement mechanisms (DSMs) in international law. Our findings show that DSMs frequently refer to WTO rules and case law not only on matters of procedure but also on various substantive aspects of trade law and general in...

In 2012, the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization issued three important reports: US Clove Cigarettes, WTO US - Tuna II, and US - COOL. These disputes concerned the flexibilities or "Policy space" left to Members in dealing with non-trade concerns under the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade, which sets rules for technical regulatio...

This article offers an overview of the procedural and substantive issues that concern the use of experts by World Trade Organization (WTO) panels, ie the WTO tribunals of first instance which are responsible for the management of evidence. The purpose of using experts in WTO dispute settlement is essentially to help panelists understand and evaluat...

This chapter explains the lex specialis system of retaliation in the context of the WTO, focusing on the diplomatic features of the dispute settlement proceedings that have to be followed before a Member is entitled to retaliate against another WTO Member and negotiated settlements after the phase of adjudication. First, it briefly reviews the main...

Steenblik for their most useful comments on earlier drafts.

The search for the right balance between disciplining protectionist measures and allowing Members to maintain regulatory autonomy has characterized the evolution of the general agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT) rules-namely Articles I, III, XI, and XX GATT 1994, the TBT Agreement, and the SPS Agreement. All of these impose different regulatory...

Trade liberalization and the improvement of labour and social conditions find expression and operate coherently and consistently with each other. The aim of this article is to explore the legal relationship between World Trade Organization (WTO) norms and labour norms and, in particular, whether and how labour considerations can be intertwined with...

This editorial seeks to explore the creative reactions of intergovernmental organizations ('IGOs') in times of global crisis. With emphasis on recent health and economic crises and the response of IGOs including the World Health Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization, the editorial shows that...

As governments increasingly adopt policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, concern has grown on two fronts. First, carbon leakage can occur when mitigation policies are not the same across countries and producers seek to locate in jurisdictions where production costs are least affected by emission constraints. The risk of carbon leakage raises...

While we have good reason to be optimistic about the impact of trade in the global “war on poverty,” there is a long road ahead. The most recent report on progress against the UN Millennium Development Goals demonstrates that, while the gap is narrowing, an unacceptable number of people still live below the poverty line. The contributions to this c...

Current developments in international law witness an increasing number of disputes arising out of conflicting societal values, such as the promotion of economic development versus the protection of health and the environment. Irrespective of its precise normative content, sustainable development, defined as an “interstitial norm” or a “meta-princip...

The field of international trade law, often highlighted for its unity and the strength of its dispute settlement and remedies systems, is itself no stranger to the phenomenon of the so-called ‘proliferation’ of dispute settlement mechanisms. Regional trade agreements (RTAs) are increasingly prevalent and set up more and more solid and far-reaching...

Introduction: The debate on the relationship between the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol on the one hand and the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the other hand raises both old and new issues. The old issues are those which have been discussed in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT...

The emerging Global Administrative Law (GAL) study has brought into the legal frontlines the need to hold global governance bodies more accountable for their rulings and activities, and how these institutions are adapting their actions to better respond to new global challenges as their legitimacy depends on their effectiveness in coping with them....

The Oxford Handbook of International Trade Law places international trade law within its broader context, providing comment and critique on a range of questions both related specifically to the discipline of international trade law itself and to the outside face of international trade law and its intersection with States and other aspects of the in...

We have been asked to provide general comments on our colleague’s paper entitled, ‘How to win a WTO dispute based on non- WTO Law’.

States have a fundamental right to form regional trade agreements Historically, States have always formed closer links with some other States for, inter alia, cultural, trade and security reasons. When they created the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1947, States could not ignore this economic and political reality; hence the inclu...

This chapter examines the jurisdictional conflicts and overlaps between the World Trade Organization (WTO) and regional trade agreements (RTA). It analyses the horizontal allocation of judicial jurisdiction between RTA and the WTO, as expressed in the dispute settlement provisions of each treaty. This chapter concludes that there appears to be no l...

The Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement, the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Agreement and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade Introduction Free trade and regulatory autonomy are often at odds with one another. National measures of an importing state may impose costs on international trade, for example, by regulating goods in ways that...

General features of the WTO dispute settlement system: The WTO dispute settlement system is a rules-based system as opposed to a negotiation-conciliation-mediation type of dispute resolution mechanism. The system includes procedural steps that can be triggered by any WTO Member dissatisfied with another Member's measure considered to be inconsisten...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement system could be seized of a dispute carrying human rights claims or arguments in support of either a complaint or a defence. How would WTO adjudicating bodies address this issue? It is suggested that WTO law must evolve and be interpreted consistently with international law, including human righ...

Alexandra González-Calatayud and Gabrielle Marceau contribute a timely piece on the relationships between dispute-settlement mechanisms in multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and those of the World Trade Organization (WTO). They focus on the potential for overlap and conflicts arising from parallel dispute-settlement mechanisms. The author...

The evolution of the multilateral trading system, and the creation of the World Trade Organization, has heightened calls by non-governmental organizations to participate in decisions about trade policy, including in WTO dispute settlement as amicus curiae, or 'friends of the court'. Amicus briefs have now been received by a number of WTO panels and...

In this book the legitimacy of anti-dumping measures in free trade areas is discussed. Economists argue that, generally, anti-dumping actions restrict and distort competition. In political terms, anti-dumping measures are biased in favour of a privileged interest group: the producers. Legally, they infringe the obligation of National Treatment cont...