番茄社区

Dr Mona Paulsen

This course is available on the LLM (extended part-time), LLM (full-time), MSc in Development Studies and University of Pennsylvania Law School LLM Visiting Students. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course has a limited number of places and demand is typically high. This may mean that you’re not able to get a place on this course.

None. Students with no previous background in public international law may find it helpful to consider consulting a standard textbook such as M. Evans (ed.), International Law (5th ed., 2018) or G. Hernandez, International Law (2022).

The course aims to introduce students to the exciting, dynamic world of international trade – a vital driver of growth and development. This course will focus on the World Trade Organization (WTO): its principles, rules, practices, and institutions. In addition to students’ doctrinal studies, select topics will grapple with the broader political and economic contexts that shape contemporary challenges with trade and the growing interdependence of our globalised economy.

This course focuses on the core legal principles and agreements that form the multilateral trading system. Students will predominantly evaluate the legal obligations of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), a foundation for all WTO agreements. That said, students will assess the rising importance of plurilateral, regional, sectoral, and informal agreements, which form part of the growing trade governance of goods and services.

Students will begin by exploring various theories about globalisation and the rationale for open markets. Students will evaluate why states trade with each other and the economic issues central to understanding the legal aspects of the multilateral trading system. After that, we examine the multilateral trading system’s legal, economic, and political foundations.  Students will draw upon the theory and practice of the multilateral trading system to weigh questions concerning the role of the state and debates concerning trade liberalisation and complex global supply chains, including industrial and subsidy policies.

The central aim of the course is for students to gain a solid theoretical understanding of WTO principles and practices, to gain the skills to evaluate WTO rules, and to debate the future of the multilateral trading system