trips agreement (trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights) is one of the binding agreements of world trade organization, upon the cases originate from that agreement also heared at dispute settlement understanding. one different character of trips agreement is expressing minimum standards. the diverse explanation of its articles may lead to some controversy between members of world...

This paper analyzes GATI' and its dispute settlement procedure (DSP) in the context of a supergame model of international trade featuring both explicit and implicit agreements. An explicit agreement, such as OAT!', may be violated at some positive cost in addition to retaliatory actions that might be induced by the violation. We interpret this cost as arising from 'international obligation," a ...

The decision by Australia’s High Court to uphold the constitutionality of the country’s ground-breaking tobacco plain packaging laws has been heralded as a victory for national sovereignty over vested interests. However, the ability of governments worldwide to introduce and im plement public health policies and laws is increasingly threatened by trade and investment treaties that privilege inve...

BACKGROUND In early October 2015, 12 nations signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), promoted as a model '21(st) century' trade and investment agreement that other countries would eventually join. There are growing concerns amongst the public health community about the potential health implications of such WTO+ trade and investment agreements, but little existing knowledge on the...

Tobacco companies are increasingly turning to trade and investment agreements to challenge measures aimed at reducing tobacco use. This study examines their efforts to influence the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a major trade and investment agreement which may eventually cover 40% of the world's population; focusing on how these efforts might enhance the industry's power to challenge the int...

For more than two decades, public health scholars and proponents have demonstrated concern about the negative effects of trade liberalisation on tobacco control policies. However, there is little theoretically-guided, empirical research across time and space that evaluates this relationship. Accordingly, we use one major region that has experienced rapid and significant recent liberalisation, S...

Why do agents engage in costly dispute resolution such as litigation and arbitration when costless settlement is available? It has been argued that parties are asymmetrically informed about facts and the law surrounding a dispute. This causes the expected payoff from litigation for an agent to be unobservable to her opponent. This unobservability can lead to the break down of pre-trial bargaini...

assistance and Eric Reinhardt for access to a database of GATT and WTO disputes.

Why did the United States promote the increased legalization of the international trade regime during the Uruguay Round (1986-1994)? The WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism is more legalized than its GATT predecessor in several key respects: Rulings are binding, additional authority is delegated to a standing Appellate Body, and the process is rationalized and clarified in important ways. While ...