International Trade Law: Economic Theory, Law, Cases

Author: Huang Dongli
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-08-01
Features: This book adopts a format different from traditional legal textbooks and uses case-based teaching to achieve the primary goal of legal education—training students' logical thinking and analytical and problem-solving skills. International teaching experience has proven that case-based teaching is an effective way to achieve this goal, and combining theory with practice through case-based teaching will be a pathway to addressing the issue of graduates being "overqualified yet under-skilled." Although there are many writings on international trade law and WTO in China, these works either focus on different aspects or have different formats. So far, no book has separated public and private law content while integrating economic theory, law, and case analysis. After some time of teaching practice, I believe it is necessary to have a book that primarily aims to train students' logical thinking and analytical abilities and teaches the public law aspects of international trade law. This book introduces the content of international trade law in seven parts, following the research characteristics of international trade law and primarily based on the WTO legal system.
Part I is the economic theory of international trade law. The international trade law system gradually formed to regulate international trade along with the development of international trade economic theory, with the WTO legal system being the most representative. Therefore, to study international trade law, including the relevant laws of WTO, one must first understand certain economic theory. This part comprehensively introduces the economic theory related to international trade law from three aspects—trade liberalization theory (Chapter 1), trade protectionism theory (Chapter 2), and international trade policy (Chapter 3)—allowing readers to understand the economic theoretical foundation for the formulation of international trade law.
The second part is organizational law (Chapter 4), which primarily introduces the organizational law of the most important international trade organization today—the WTO. Through the WTO organizational law, it showcases the structure, decision-making mechanisms, and daily operational mechanisms of international trade organizations, presenting the fundamental organizational law content and models of such organizations.
The third part is dispute settlement mechanisms (Chapter 5). This is procedural law content that every legal system includes. Based on an introduction to the methodology of international dispute settlement mechanisms, this part provides a detailed explanation of the WTO's dispute settlement mechanism. Under the insistence of developed member countries, this mechanism maintains most of the characteristics of dispute settlement in international organizations while breaking away from traditional international law practices and developing new content in relevant areas of international law. Through legal and case analysis in this part, readers can clearly understand the actual operation of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism and some unique challenges it faces.
The fourth part covers the traditional international trade—goods trade—substantive law content, including the fundamental principles of international trade law, which are also the three cornerstones of the WTO: non-discrimination, tariff reductions, and prohibition of quantitative restrictions. Chapters six and seven provide detailed legal analysis of the numerous issues related to these three important principles through case studies, aiming to fully and accurately reveal their guiding role in practice.
The WTO system is based on a balance of interests among all parties. To maintain this balance, the WTO has established exceptions to the above three fundamental principles. Chapters six and seven include case studies and legal analysis of these exception provisions, while Chapter eight specifically analyzes general exceptions and security exceptions. Through these analyses, readers can better understand how the balancing mechanism in the WTO legal system functions. Additionally, the fourth part also includes two aspects of non-tariff trade barriers—technical regulations and sanitary and phytosanitary measures related to the environment (Chapter 9), as well as three aspects of legal provisions introduced in the Uruguay Round negotiations into the multilateral trading system: agriculture, textiles and clothing (Chapter 10), and trade-related investment measures (Chapter 11).
The fifth part is trade remedies. The main trade remedy methods in international trade law are three—antidumping measures, countervailing measures, and safeguard measures. This part is divided into three chapters (Chapters 12, 13, and 14) to provide theoretical, legal, and case analysis of these three trade remedy measures, demonstrating the practical application of their specific legal provisions.
The sixth and seventh parts provide legal and case analysis of substantive law provisions in two new areas of international trade—the field of trade-related intellectual property and services trade. Due to the increasing impact of intellectual property on international economic development, Part six (Chapter 15) provides a detailed case analysis of the legal provisions of the WTO's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The seventh part, on services trade (Chapter 16), is the area with the largest development potential for the WTO, and many specific provisions still need to be further clarified and formulated through negotiations among member countries.
Looking at the history of the formation of international trade law, especially the formation process of the WTO legal system, it is not difficult to see that every specific provision in these legal systems is the result of struggles among various interest groups in the international community to protect their own interests. Without a doubt, the two largest interest groups in the WTO system are the group of developed countries and the group of developing countries. Leveraging their advantages in politics, economy, science, technology, and legal systems, the group of developed countries attempts to permanently maintain their existing and developing interests by formulating international trade rules. Although the development of the world economy also benefits developing countries, to secure a fair share of the benefits and protect their own development interests, developing countries must participate more actively in the formulation of international trade rules. To achieve this, the first step is to learn and study existing rules. This is precisely the author's purpose in writing this book.
This book introduces the content of international trade law in seven parts, following the research characteristics of international trade law and primarily based on the WTO legal system.
Part I is the economic theory of international trade law. The international trade law system gradually formed to regulate international trade along with the development of international trade economic theory, with the WTO legal system being the most representative. Therefore, to study international trade law, including the relevant laws of WTO, one must first understand certain economic theory. This part comprehensively introduces the economic theory related to international trade law from three aspects—trade liberalization theory (Chapter 1), trade protectionism theory (Chapter 2), and international trade policy (Chapter 3)—allowing readers to understand the economic theoretical foundation for the formulation of international trade law.
The second part is organizational law (Chapter 4), which primarily introduces the organizational law of the most important international trade organization today—the WTO. Through the WTO organizational law, it showcases the structure, decision-making mechanisms, and daily operational mechanisms of international trade organizations, presenting the fundamental organizational law content and models of such organizations.
The third part is dispute settlement mechanisms (Chapter 5). This is procedural law content that every legal system includes. Based on an introduction to the methodology of international dispute settlement mechanisms, this part provides a detailed explanation of the WTO's dispute settlement mechanism. Under the insistence of developed member countries, this mechanism maintains most of the characteristics of dispute settlement in international organizations while breaking away from traditional international law practices and developing new content in relevant areas of international law. Through legal and case analysis in this part, readers can clearly understand the actual operation of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism and some unique challenges it faces.
The fourth part covers the traditional international trade—goods trade—substantive law content, including the fundamental principles of international trade law, which are also the three cornerstones of the WTO: non-discrimination, tariff reductions, and prohibition of quantitative restrictions. Chapters six and seven provide detailed legal analysis of the numerous issues related to these three important principles through case studies, aiming to fully and accurately reveal their guiding role in practice.
The fifth part is trade remedies. The main trade remedy methods in international trade law are three—antidumping measures, countervailing measures, and safeguard measures. This part is divided into three chapters (Chapters 12, 13, and 14) to provide theoretical, legal, and case analysis of these three trade remedy measures, demonstrating the practical application of their specific legal provisions.
The sixth and seventh parts provide legal and case analysis of substantive law provisions in two new areas of international trade—the field of trade-related intellectual property and services trade. Due to the increasing impact of intellectual property on international economic development, Part six (Chapter 15) provides a detailed case analysis of the legal provisions of the WTO's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The seventh part, on services trade (Chapter 16), is the area with the largest development potential for the WTO, and many specific provisions still need to be further clarified and formulated through negotiations among member countries.