The Oxford Handbook of International Trade Law (2e)

Abstract

Abstract The second edition of the Handbook provides students, scholars and practitioners with a global overview of international trade law, including but not limited to the World Trade Organization (WTO). International trade law continues to grow at unprecedented rates compared to other areas of international law. The Uruguay Round agreements establishing the WTO in 1995 continue to act as the multilateral foundation of the body of law, which is being expanded by its own committees and in new arrangements. While the WTO remains the most important multilateral body governing international trade and continues to have the most active dispute settlement system in international law, it is the not sole forum where trade rules are negotiated (although with decreasing success) and trade disputes are litigated. Increasingly, WTO Members are negotiating comprehensive trade and investment agreements that have a greater scope than the WTO covered agreements. The second edition therefore broadens the analysis beyond the WTO, while maintaining the same objective of the first edition: to place international trade law within its broader context of public international law and international relations.