Courses

    With the continuing integration of the global economy, dispute resolution mechanisms are playing an increasingly central role in the interpretation and application of international trade and investment agreements. Often, decisions by WTO panels are at the center of the hottest political issues in international trade, such as the environment and health and safety issues. This course will examine the strengths and weaknesses of the principal dispute resolution mechanisms that govern key international trade and investment rules, and assess the prospects or success of each mechanism. It will cover the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) of the WTO, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the North American Agreement on Environmental and Labor Cooperation, and the International Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). It will also examine how key substantive provisions of these agreements evolve through dispute settlement.

An integral element of the course is the requirement that each student participate in two dispute settlement simulated exercises in which students brief, argue and decide hypothetical cases based on actual litigated cases in the GATT and WTO. The workshop is designed to provide maximum opportunity for the students to demonstrate and improve the following key skills. First, the workshop focuses on the ability to read, understand, and identify the key elements of complex decisions of World Trade Organization (WTO) panels and the WTO Appellate Body, and of panels under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Second, the workshop focuses on the ability to incorporate these elements into arguments or decisions involving a hypothetical set of facts. Whether a student is drafting a brief or decision, the instructors will seek to enhance the same essential set of skills: outlining and drafting argument/decision on the issues presented, utilizing the present case law, including relevant case law, including relevant quotations from the key decisions, to write a document that persuades the reader of its conclusions. Third, the workshop focuses on the ability to condense the key points of the argument once written into a terse oral presentation, or to digest and distill the arguments presented into the key questions to pose to the parties that drafted the briefs.

Students will be encouraged to focus on the core concepts of litigation, starting with the presentation of a case as a "story" with two essential elements: (1) what happened (elucidation of the facts); and (2) why it matters (how the international agreement has violated (the "law")).

In terms of brief/decision writing, a number of points will be emphasized, including: (1) drafting form, including the fact that clarity is paramount and the need to be simple and concise, need to write in active tense and draft in crisp, short, simple sentences and short paragraphs; (2) organization, for example, the benefits of summarizing what you are going to say, saying it as concisely and persuasively as possible, then summarizing what you have said; also, providing a road map to the argument; and (3) general tactical considerations in litigation, including that you are depending on your reader for a good result, therefore, it behooves you to make his/her life easier in any way possible, all the while building credibility with the decision-maker.