International Trade Law: A Comprehensive E-Textbook, Volume 2 Fundamental Multilateral Obligations (6th Revised Edition)

Bhala, Raj

Publication

International Trade Law: A Comprehensive E-Textbook, Volume 2 Fundamental Multilateral Obligations (6th Revised Edition)

Bhala, Raj

Abstract

Volume Two, Fundamental Multilateral Obligations, provides in-depth coverage of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and World Trade Organization (WTO). International Trade Law springs from, and operates at, three levels: multilateral trade treaties, i.e., GATT-WTO rules; regional trade agreements, i.e., rules arising from free trade agreements (FTAs) and customs unions (CUs); and national measures, e.g., rules specific to one country, such as America or India. Volume Two is all about this first level. Subsequent Volumes deal with the other levels. But, across all eight Volumes, GATT-WTO rules are of special, if not pre-eminent, importance – at least if there is anything to the international rule of law. Part One lays out the architecture of multilateral trade treaties. Special emphasis is on the 1986-1994 Uruguay Round. It produced the largest and most complex of trade treaties in human history, and birthed the WTO. Also discussed here is how countries became contracting parties to GATT, and how they accede as Members to the WTO. Part Two studies the luster and blemishes on the “crown jewel” of the GATT-WTO regime, namely, its adjudicatory system. How did this system evolve since 1947 into today’s sophisticated set of procedures for resolving trade disputes among WTO Members? What problems do WTO Panels and the Appellate Body face? Does stare decisis operate, in a de facto sense, in this system? Why did the Appellate Body – loosely akin to a Supreme Court of International Trade – collapse in December 2019, and what replaced it? Can it be said, under Positivist Legal Theory, that International Trade Law is truly “law,” unlike, perhaps, Public International Law? Part Three sets the foundation for the remaining two Parts, Three and Four. All GATT- WTO disputes necessarily begin with a basic question: what is the relationship between or among (1) an imported product, and either (2) an allegedly aggrieved other imported product or (3) domestically-produced product? If (1) an imported product bears no “likeness” either to (2) another imported product or (3) a domestically-produced product, then that imported product cannot be said to cause harm to the other merchandise. Part Three elucidates the legal tests for “likeness,” which derive from considerable GATT-WTO jurisprudence. Part Four then identifies each of the five most important rules in the entire multilateral trading system – the “Five Pillars.” They are most-favored nation (MFN) treatment, national treatment (for both fiscal and non-fiscal measures), tariff bindings, quantitative restrictions (QRs), and transparency. To know these rules well is to know a lot about International Trade Law. They, or their analogs, are reincarnated countless times not only in WTO treaties that deal with, for example, IP and services, but also and in FTAs. Part Four untangles the text of each of these rules, and the leading GATT-WTO cases that apply them in a wide array of provocative circumstances.

Description

This book is Volume Two of an Eight-Volume set. All of the Volumes are available in KU ScholarWorks. Links to all eight volumes are available in the Abstracts file in this record. About the Author: Born in Toronto of Indian and Celtic heritage, Rakesh (Raj) Kumar Bhala is a dual Canadian-U.S. citizen prominent in the fields of International Trade Law, Islamic Law (Sharī‘a), and Law and Literature. Raj is the inaugural Leo. S. Brenneisen Distinguished Professor at the University of Kansas School of Law (KU Law). He is published widely world-wide – authoring 100 scholarly articles and 13 books, including the International Trade Law Textbook, which has been used at over 100 law schools around the globe. Ingram’s Business Magazine designated him as one of “50 Kansans You Should Know.” Raj has testified before the U.K. Parliament, House of Commons, International Trade Committee, on trade and human rights. Media frequently call upon Raj. Across 65 consecutive months (from January 2017-October 2022), “On Point” was his column on International Law and Economics, which Bloomberg Quint / BQ Prime (Mumbai) published and distributed to approximately 6.2 million readers globally. Raj is a Harvard Law School (HLS) graduate (Cum Laude). As a Marshall Scholar, Raj earned two Master’s degrees, from the London School of Economics (LSE) in Economics, and from Oxford (Trinity College) in Management (Industrial Relations). His undergraduate degree is from Duke (Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa), where he was an Angier B. Duke Scholar and double-majored in Economics and Sociology. After HLS, Raj practiced at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he twice won the President’s Award for Excellence thanks to his service as a delegate to the United Nations Conference on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), along with a Letter of Commendation from the U.S. Department of State. He is a member of the State Department’s Speaker Program. Raj has served in officer positions at the International Bar Association (IBA) and Inter-Pacific Bar Association (IPBA), on the Executive Board of Directors of the Carriage Club of Kansas City (including as Treasurer), and been on the Alumni Association Board of the University School of Milwaukee (USM), his high school alma mater. He is grateful to his USM teachers for a liberal arts education that made all good things possible. Raj loves fitness training, has finished 115 marathons, including the “Big Five” of the “World’s Majors” (Boston twice, New York twice, Chicago twice, Berlin, and London). He enjoys studying Shakespeare and (especially since becoming Catholic at Easter Vigil 2001) Theology – and watching baseball.