International Trade Law and the Wto

The book discusses some notable debates in the arena of international trade law and globalisation. It looks at the basic structure of the WTO, its function, and decision-making, and explores key economic and legal concepts underpinning the WTO, including Most-Favoured-Nation Treatment and National Treatment.

The need of the hour is to discuss tariff barriers and non-tariff barriers, as they assist in promoting economic development. Besides these, the WTO attempts to control illegal trade practices, including dumping and subsidies, which are also pertinent topics in the current climate.

The book examines many of these issues through exploring the jurisprudence and regulatory framework of WTO. It examines the existing WTO jurisprudence to reconcile trade liberalisation with other societal values and interests. Furthermore, it highlights the regulation of international trade in agricultural products. Overall, this book shows that international trade law of the WTO is not a self-contained discipline, but has clear connections with other social, economic, and environmental subjects.

The WTO interacts with these issues, and thus the book discusses, clarifies and identifies its relationship with human rights, intellectual property rights and the environment. It discusses the following topics in single chapters; Trade, Globalisation and Economic Policy; WTO and Environment; WTO and Human Rights; WTO and Regulation of International Trade in Agricultural Products; WTO and Developing Countries. The book provides a unique, interdisciplinary, and refreshing approach to the study of international trade law and the WTO.

Indira Carr, MA, BPhil, LLM, PhD is a Professor of Law at the University of Surrey, UK. Her research interests include various aspects of international trade law and information technology law. Recently she has been working on the topic of corruption, in particular corruption in international business. This research has been funded by the UK Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the British Academy.

Shawkat Alam, LLB (Hons), LLM, PhD is an Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for International and Environmental Law at Macquarie University where he teaches and researches in the areas of international and environmental law.Dr Alam has published extensively in his areas of research. His recent publications include Sustainable Development and Free Trade (Routledge, 2008), Routledge Handbook of International Environmental Law (Routledge 2012, co-edited with Jahid Hossain Bhuiyan, Tareq M.R. Chowdhury, and Erika J Techera), and Globalisation and the Quest for Social and Environmental Justice (Routledge 2011, co-edited with Natalie Klein, and Juliette Overland).

Md Jahid Hossain Bhuiyan teaches law in the Department of Law, ASA University Bangladesh.During his studies in Belgium he gained experience in legal practice with lawyers from European countries. Bhuiyan was a visiting scholar of Emory Law School, Emory University, USA. He has articles in journals published in Australia, Bangladesh, India, and Malta. He is co-editor of Globalisation, International Law, and Human Rights (Oxford University Press, 2012), Routledge Handbook of International Environmental Law (Routledge, 2012), An Introduction to International Human Rights Law (BRILL, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2010), Issues in Human Rights (Atlantic Publishers, 2010), and International Humanitarian Law - An Anthology (LexisNexis Butterworths, 2009).