CWT223 | Law and Practice of World Trade Organization

How does this course relate to the programme curriculum: Does it develop on a prior course in the programme or is it a foundational or standalone course?

• I note that there is a Course on International Trade Law (ITRL816) that is offered in the program curriculum for 5-Year B.A., LL.B. This course seeks to build on the foundational knowledge that students have gained through that Course by introducing them to the policy and legal practice of the concepts discussed therein.
• For example, we will be exploring (a) what are the competing considerations that a policy-maker faces in framing measures that are consistent with WTO obligations ?; (b) why do countries choose to join the multilateral trading framework and enforce these obligations in good faith? (c) what are the litigation strategies that are employed in challenging or defending measures before WTO panels or the Appellate Body? (d) how have panels and Appellate Body interpreted WTO disciplines; (e) what are the challenges faced by WTO Members in complying with WTO rulings?

Describe how you have approached the course. What have you included/excluded and why? Choice of materials: primary or secondary readings / case law.

• The content and structure of the course has been developed to guide the students towards approaching the subject from a practitioner’s view point. How are the foundational concepts of international trade law employed in the real world by litigators, judges, and policy makers? This overarching theme permeates the discussion of various disciplines of WTO law. While we stick to the substantive disciplines discussed in the Course on International Trade Law (ITRL816), the focus will be on how these disciplines have been applied in the policy space, litigated and ultimately interpreted under the WTO dispute settlement (DS) system.

Describe your pedagogical method: lectures, Socratic discussion, seminar style discussion, response papers or group work, field work;

• Socratic discussion. Students will be expected to continuously engage in dialogues in classroom discussions, which in turn would require them to prepare on the case law that will be discussed in a session. However, the expectation is not that they regurgitate the factual history or the rulings and recommendations of the panel/Appellate Body but that there will be original thinking on, for example, the policy considerations underlying the measure at issue, the litigation strategy and interpretation of the law.

Describe the layout of the course: module structure and sequence.

• The course will begin with a brief introduction to multilateralism- its historical underpinnings and the forces that precipitated the Bretton Woods/ITO-GATT framework in the aftermath of the Second World War; brief review of the events leading to the successful conclusion of the Uruguay round of negotiations that led to the establishment of the WTO with a two-tier dispute settlement system (Panels and Appellate Body).
• After this, there will be immersive discussions on the foundational disciplines of the WTO framework – 1) disciplining of border measures (GATT Articles II and XI); 2) non-discrimination (Arts. I:1 and III); general exceptions and security exception (XX and XXI); 3) TBT Agreement; 4) SPS Agreement; Agreement on Agriculture; 5) Trade Remedies (Anti-Dumping, Safeguards and Subsidies and Countervailing Measures).
• Finally, we move on to the contemporary challenges facing the multilateral trading system – (discussion on the appellate body crisis, efforts to contain China, resurgence of free trade agreements) and the efforts by the WTO to remain relevant (discussion on fisheries subsidies regulation, nascent discussions to regulate the digital economy, and discussions under the Trade and Environmental Sustainability pillar at the WTO).