The Law and Jurisprudence of the World Trade Organization

Master 2024/2025

Type: Compulsory course (Law of International Trade and Dispute Resolution)

Area of studies: Law

Delivered by: School of International Law

Where: Faculty of Law

When: 1 year, 1, 2 module

Mode of studies: offline

Open to: students of one campus

Instructors: Daria Boklan

Master’s programme: Law of International Trade and Dispute Resolution

Language: English

ECTS credits: 6

Full Syllabus

Abstract

The Law and Jurisprudence of the World Trade Organization is a compulsory course to be taught on-line in English. A good command of legal English is required. The course aims to familiarize the students with the main trends in development of contemporary trade law and law of the WTO, specifics of trade regulation in international trade system, and the main rules on resoling trade disputes in the WTO dispute settlement mechanism. The course will also analyze the WTO covered agreements, jurisprudence of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body, and their interrelation with the regional trade agreements. Thus, the course will include elements of general international law, international trade law and law of the integration organizations. It is, therefore, desirable, that the students have already studied the course of “General international Law”. The target audience is both students of the Faculty of Law of the HSE and foreign students. The course is taught in English.

Learning Objectives

Main purpose of the course is to make students able to use norms of law of the World Trade Organization (WTO), make legal research and solve cases in this field. The course’s objectives are numerous but its main purpose is to provide students with the necessary tools to understand and analyze the nature, role and effects of the WTO law, regulation, proceedings and decision-making. To that end, the first sessions will lay the necessary grounds, that is, introduce historical aspects of the establishment of the WTO, emergence of the WTO law, its general principles, main actors and an overview of general institutional design. After the necessary introductory sessions, we will look at the production and implementation of the WTO law; the WTO institutions; general access to the WTO dispute settlement system; WTO membership and decision-making; institutional structure of the WTO. Largely, half of the course is dedicated to WTO law and regulation of various trade aspects, such as trade in goods, trade in services, non-tariff barriers and trade related aspects of intellectual property rights.

Expected Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and understanding: demonstrate general knowledge and understanding of basic notions of WTO institutions and WTO law; demonstrate extensive knowledge and understanding of WTO principles of trade in goods, trade in services, non-tariff barriers and trade related aspects of intellectual property rights, etc.
Skills and abilities: demonstrate the ability to find, select and evaluate WTO law, as well as WTO case law; demonstrate a solid understanding of the WTO decision-making process, in particular in the WTO dispute settlement mechanism;
Students should gain the following competences: ability to work with information (search, evaluate, use information, necessary for fulfillment of scientific and professional tasks, from various sources, including application of the systematic approach); ability to carry out professional activities in WTO and international setting; ability to search, analyze, and work with legally relevant information by using the juridical, comparative and other specific methods;

Course Contents

Legal status of the WTO
The Law of the WTO and its sources
WTO dispute settlement
Most-favoured-nation treatment (MFN) and national treatment (NT)
General and security exceptions
Sanitary and phytosanitary measures and technical barriers to trade.
Trade in services
Intellectual property rights

Assessment Elements

Attendance, active participation and in-class discussion
One in-class presentation
This assessment component includes a 10-minute in-class presentation during one of the classes that serves to help steering the discussion of the relevant topic. Tentative topics per each session are presented further in the syllabus.
Written assignment

Interim Assessment

2024/2025 2nd module
0.2 * Attendance, active participation and in-class discussion + 0.4 * One in-class presentation + 0.4 * Written assignment

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

Boklan, D. S. / Б. Д. С., Absaliamov, V. V. / А. В. В., & Kurnosov, Y. S. / К. Ю. С. (2018). Are Restrictive Measures and Countermeasures Justifiable by Wto Security Exceptions: Objective or Subjective Approach? / Могут Ли Антироссийские “Санкции” И Российские Ответные Меры Быть Оправданы В Рамках Вто Соображениями Безопасности: Объективный Или Субъективный Подход? Московский Журнал Международного Права, (3), 18–29. https://doi.org/10.24833/0869-0049-2018-3-18-29
EU state aid law, WTO subsidies disciplines and renewable energy support schemes: Disconnected paradigms in decarbonizing the grid. (2018). European Journal of Risk Regulation, 1–39. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsnar&AN=edsnar.oai.tilburguniversity.edu.publications.6852809e.b52c.40cc.ae8d.5e0430bbf866
Pogoretskyy,Vitaliy. (2018). Freedom of Transit and Access to Gas Pipeline Networks under WTO Law. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsrep&AN=edsrep.b.cup.cbooks.9781316615249
Subsidies in WTO Law and Energy Regulation: Some Implications for Fossil Fuels and Renewable Energy. (2018). Hart Publishing. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsnar&AN=edsnar.oai.tilburguniversity.edu.publications.eba4e2b0.3a35.4036.9761.238f73da141e
Will, U. (2019). Climate Border Adjustments and WTO Law Extending the EU Emissions Trading System to Imported Goods and Services. Leiden: Brill | Nijhoff. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=2226582

Recommended Additional Bibliography

Cook,Graham. (2015). A Digest of WTO Jurisprudence on Public International Law Concepts and Principles. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsrep&AN=edsrep.b.cup.cbooks.9781107102767
Sifonios, D. (2018). Environmental Process and Production Methods (PPMs) in WTO Law. Cham: Springer. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1697488
Soprano, R. (2018). WTO Trade Remedies in International Law : Their Role and Place in a Fragmented International Legal System. Abingdon, Oxon [UK]: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1770153
The Return of Voluntary Export Restraints? How WTO Law Regulates (and Doesn’t Regulate) Bilateral Trade-Restrictive Agreements. (2019). Journal of World Trade, 53(2), 187–210. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsnar&AN=edsnar.oai.dare.uva.nl.publications.0fad9b86.5245.4303.bf46.402be2ddfe0f
Zvenyslava Opeida. (2019). U.S. Countervailing Duty Law and the WTO Rules for Subsidies: the Issue of Consistency. Lex Portus, (1), 7. https://doi.org/10.26886/2524-101X.1.2019.1

Authors

Boklan Daria Sergeevna
ROVNOV YURIY EVGENEVICH
SMIRNOVA SVETLANA ANATOLEVNA

Course Syllabus