Bulletin n. 1/2015
June 2015
CONTENTS
  • Section A) The theory and practise of the federal states and multi-level systems of government
  • Section B) Global governance and international organizations
  • Section C) Regional integration processes
  • Section D) Federalism as a political idea
    • Thomas Cottier
    The Common Law of International Trade and the Future of the World Trade Organization
    in Journal of International Economic Law , Volume 18 Issue 1 ,  2015 ,  3-20
    The public perception of international trade law largely hinges upon the state of play of international negotiations, either at the World Trade Organization (WTO) or elsewhere in the context of preferential negotiations. The bicycle theory looms large: the life of international trade law depends upon successful negotiations, or otherwise fails and falls to the ground. According to this theory, the current state of play, 20 years after the inception of the WTO, is rather depressing: gone is the optimism of the post Uruguay Round years for institutional reform, still evident at its 10th anniversary in 2005.1 The facts are well known: the stalling of the 2001 Doha Development Agenda, producing minimal, albeit important results in a new type of softer law on trade facilitation in 2014, a non-transparent agenda on services formally outside the WTO (Trade in Services Agreement (TISA)), and the advent of new bi and multilateral interregional trade negotiations (Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP), Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)), diverting energy and efforts away from most-favoured-nation (MFN)-based multilateralism despite increasing global value chains. At the end of 2014, more than 790 preferential trade agreements (PTAs) existed worldwide.
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