Full Description
This book provides readers with a unique opportunity to explore how the international economic legal order (IELO) may look in a post-WTO world. The substance of this book presupposes (whether correct or not) that the WTO either: (a) Stagnates into the foreseeable future (Doha withers, no new Rounds, at best minor amendments, little new jurisprudence, effective collapse of the DSB); or (b) Falls apart completely. While neither is desirable, the book underlines that it must be conceded that neither is inconceivable. The collapse of the Soviet Union tells us that anything is possible (in 1986 no one foresaw the end of the Cold War - clearly it was a much more significant event than would be the case for the demise of the WTO and the current international economic legal order (IELO)). Similarly, just a year or two before Brexit or the election of US President Donald Trump, no one foresaw those two eventualities. Consequently, a worst-case scenario for the future of the WTO cannot be ignored - rather, it must be explored, as has been done in this book. Indeed, despite most IEL academics' commitment to multilateralism and specifically to a vibrant and dynamic WTO, academics in the field are now beginning to seriously discuss what a post-WTO world could look like (and it was the project behind this book that first launched those discussions). Accordingly, this examination of the post-WTO world will be of great value to practitioners, governmental and international officials and scholars in the IELO. This is particularly so in an era of increasingly rapid change, during which legal scholarship must also address the future if it wants to contribute creative solutions to the resolution and management of the many serious contemporary problems facing our field.
Contents
Part I: The Post-WTO: Introduction.- An Introduction to Utopian and Dystopian Post-WTO Regimes and Environments.- Part II: The Post-WTO: Macro and Theoretical Perspectives.- To Dystopia and Beyond: The WTO in a Warming Megaregional World.- Narrowed Down Utopia: Adjusting the WTO to a Changing Trade Environment.- Waiting for Cordell Hull.- GAIA 2048—A 'Glocal Agency in Anthropocene': Cognitive and Institutional Change as 'Legal Science Fiction'.- If the WTO Were to Break Down Completely, Would We Stoop and Build It Up with Worn-Out Tools?.- Part III: The Post-WTO: Dispute Settlement.- The EU Approach to Overcome the WTO Dispute Settlement Vacuum: Article 25 DSU Interim Appeal Arbitration as a Bridge Between Renovation and Innovation.- Like a Rolling Stone: Exploring Viable Options for the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism to Evolve Forward in the Post-WTO Era.- What Can We Learn from Our Struggling Cousin?: Recent Discussions on Reform of International Investment Law and Investment Dispute Settlement Proceedings.- Reaching for Utopia, Geneva as Inspiration for Investment Disputes?.- A Possible Hierarchy of Dispute Settlement Systems?.- Part IV: The Post-WTO: Specific International Economic Law Issues.- The Concern with Non-concerns: For the End of Trade Dystopia.- The Rise of Import Substitution Subsidies and Local Content Requirements in a Dystopian WTO 2.0 Regime.- A Development-Driven Post WTO World.- Saving the World Trade Order from the Bottom Up: A Role for Preferential Trade Agreements.- A New International Trade Framework for Digital Assets.
