The mission of Trade, Law, and Development, which was founded in 2009, has been to promote and sustain a healthy and democratic discourse on emerging challenges in international economic law, as well as to serve as a forum for the exchange of ideas.
Members’ faith in the multilateral trade system is at an all-time low, with the “crown jewel” of the WTO in crisis and gridlock between developing and rich countries in numerous WTO debates. The growing number of free trade agreements (FTAs) around the world, as well as States’ preference for regionalism over the multilateral framework, demonstrate this.
While the WTO’s role in assisting economies recover from declining trade volumes has grown significantly, it is unclear how the organisation will address each of these issues separately. Because the goal of TL&D is to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and constructive debate on legal and policy matters, the above-mentioned aspects are arguably some of the most important topics in international trade discourse this year.
The Journal hopes to promote discussion on how to maintain the multilateral rules-based trade system and, as a result, prevent the transition to a pre-WTO power-based trading system through this theme.
Themes
While the theme is broad enough to cover a wide range of issues, an indicative list of specific areas is as follows:
- Appellate Body Crisis and the Multi Party Interim Appeal Arrangement (MPIA)
- Transparency and Notification/ Transparency and Consensus-Building within the WTO
- Status of Developing Countries at the WTO
China and the WTO
- Agriculture and Development vis-à-vis the WTO Agreement on Agriculture
- Environmental Sustainability
- Linking Trade and Non-Trade Issues
- COVID-19 and Reorganization of Global Supply Chains
- Increasing Reliance on the National Security Exception by WTO Members
- Increase in Barriers to Cross-Border Investments/ Protectionism
- USA and the WTO
- Stagnancy in Multilateral Trade Liberalisation
- Mega-Regional Trade Agreements as an Alternative to the WTO
Note:-These sub-issues are not exhaustive, and the Journal welcomes papers on any aspect of the international trade regime’s concerns and their influence on the global trading system.
Relevant links and Contacts
Manuscripts referring to any sub-theme within the purview of issues faced by international commerce will be examined for inclusion in the Summer ’22 issue if received by March 15th, 2022.
