Trade and the Environment Fundamental Issues in International Law, WTO Law, and Legal Theory

About this book

The relevance of the WTO legal system for environmental protection is a central topic in general international law, WTO law and international environmental law. The relationship between WTO law and international and domestic efforts to protect the environment has moved to centre stage in WTO and international environmental law. It has also spurred the discussion on fragmentation in international law in recent years.

This book analyses these issues by examining the 'horizontal' interaction between WTO law and 'other' international law, the 'vertical' relationship between WTO law and domestic law, and the contents and the interrelations between fundamental provisions of WTO law. This study relies on established insights from legal theory in order to achieve greater clarity in legal argumentation. The main results of this analysis are applied to two topical instances of international regime interplay, namely the relevance of WTO law for international and domestic measures protecting the earth's climate and the ozone layer.

A series of controversial topics in WTO and general international law are addressed in this book, including the notion of conflicts of norms, and the resolution of conflicts of norms; the role of international law in WTO proceedings; extraterritorial jurisdiction and unilateral trade measures; proportionality and balancing of interests in international and WTO law; the core disciplines of the GATT and the TBT Agreement; process and production-based measures (PPMs) in WTO law; climate protection, protection of the ozone layer, and WTO disciplines

Contents

Introduction; ISSUES IN GENERAL INTERNATIONAL LAW AND LEGAL THEORY: CONFLICTS OF NORMS AND RELATED PROBLEMS; 1. The Definition of 'Conflicts of Norms'; 2. The Principles of Conflict Resolution; 3. The Role of International Law Conflicting with WTO law in WTO Proceedings; FURTHER ISSUES IN GENERAL INTERNATIONAL LAW AND LEGAL THEORY: EXTRATERRITORIAL JURISDICTION, UNILATERLISM AND PROPORTIONALITY; 4. Extraterritorial Jurisdiction; 5. 'Unilateralism' in the Trade and Environment Context; FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES IN WTO LAW; 6. Non-Discrimination and Justification in the GATT; 7. The Trade Disciplines Arising under the TBT Agreement; 8. Processes and Production Methods: A Special Case under the GATT and the TBT Agreement?; CASE STUDY: TRADE, OZONE AND CLIMATE PROTECTION; 9. Ozone Protection and WTO Law; 10. Climate Protection and WTO Law

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