Blockchain is a potent buzzword and a potentially transformative technology. Diverse businesses are looking to leverage this technology to reap its alleged benefits of increased efficiency, reduced costs, enhanced transparency, and improved traceability. Yet, significant confusion persists about the structure, utility, and applicability of blockchain technology. A clear understanding of what blockchain is and how it works is especially important for lawyers advising clients on the applications that use, or purport to use, it. This article aims to assist lawyers and regulators by providing conceptual clarity about what blockchain is, how it works, and its main use cases. These use cases include smart contracts, cryptoassets, and some central bank digital currencies. These applications may transform business practices, or even entire monetary and payment systems, so conceptual clarity among lawyers will only become more vital.
{"title":"Blockchain and its Applications: A Conceptual Legal Primer","authors":"Ross P. Buckley, Anton N Didenko, Mia Trzecinski","doi":"10.1093/jiel/jgad010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jiel/jgad010","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Blockchain is a potent buzzword and a potentially transformative technology. Diverse businesses are looking to leverage this technology to reap its alleged benefits of increased efficiency, reduced costs, enhanced transparency, and improved traceability. Yet, significant confusion persists about the structure, utility, and applicability of blockchain technology. A clear understanding of what blockchain is and how it works is especially important for lawyers advising clients on the applications that use, or purport to use, it. This article aims to assist lawyers and regulators by providing conceptual clarity about what blockchain is, how it works, and its main use cases. These use cases include smart contracts, cryptoassets, and some central bank digital currencies. These applications may transform business practices, or even entire monetary and payment systems, so conceptual clarity among lawyers will only become more vital.","PeriodicalId":46864,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Economic Law","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41421382","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ABSTRACT Cross-border supply chains and international trade enabled the manufacturing and delivery of billions of vaccine doses to inoculate the world against the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). At the same time, the pandemic revealed how the World Trade Organization (WTO) must change to become more useful in the face of a public health emergency. This paper describes the market failures—especially on the supply side—justifying the domestic subsidies and contracting arrangements used to accelerate vaccine research and development and to increase the scale of vaccine production to save lives, livelihoods, and economic activity during a pandemic. It highlights the trade-offs associated with the US subsidies and the priority-rated contracts written for vaccines through the Defense Production Act under Operation Warp Speed. This case study reveals a rich environment in which cross-border supply chains exacerbate input shortages in ways that constrain vaccine production, highlighting the need for the WTO to embrace new forms of international policy coordination for pandemic preparedness and response. As part of a pandemic treaty, the paper proposes a plurilateral agreement on vaccine supply chain resilience that would include novel and enforceable disciplines for export restrictions, provisions to trigger coordinated subsidies across countries to jointly scale up vaccine output and input production capacity, and market surveillance initiatives on supply chain transparency.
跨境供应链和国际贸易使数十亿剂疫苗的生产和交付成为可能，为全世界接种了新型冠状病毒病(COVID-19)。与此同时，这次大流行表明，世界贸易组织(WTO)必须做出改变，才能在面对突发公共卫生事件时发挥更大作用。本文描述了市场失灵——尤其是供给方面的失灵——为国内补贴和合同安排提供了理由，这些补贴和合同安排用于加速疫苗研发和扩大疫苗生产规模，以在大流行期间拯救生命、生计和经济活动。它强调了与美国补贴和根据“曲速行动”(Operation Warp Speed)通过《国防生产法案》(Defense Production Act)为疫苗制定的优先级合同相关的权衡。这一案例研究揭示了一个丰富的环境，在这个环境中，跨境供应链加剧了投入短缺，从而限制了疫苗的生产，这突出表明，世贸组织有必要为大流行的防范和应对采取新的国际政策协调形式。作为大流行条约的一部分，该文件提出了一项关于疫苗供应链弹性的诸边协议，其中将包括新的和可执行的出口限制纪律，启动各国协调补贴的条款，以共同扩大疫苗产出和投入物的生产能力，以及关于供应链透明度的市场监测举措。
{"title":"The WTO and Vaccine Supply Chain Resilience during a Pandemic","authors":"Chad P Bown","doi":"10.1093/jiel/jgad007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jiel/jgad007","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Cross-border supply chains and international trade enabled the manufacturing and delivery of billions of vaccine doses to inoculate the world against the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). At the same time, the pandemic revealed how the World Trade Organization (WTO) must change to become more useful in the face of a public health emergency. This paper describes the market failures—especially on the supply side—justifying the domestic subsidies and contracting arrangements used to accelerate vaccine research and development and to increase the scale of vaccine production to save lives, livelihoods, and economic activity during a pandemic. It highlights the trade-offs associated with the US subsidies and the priority-rated contracts written for vaccines through the Defense Production Act under Operation Warp Speed. This case study reveals a rich environment in which cross-border supply chains exacerbate input shortages in ways that constrain vaccine production, highlighting the need for the WTO to embrace new forms of international policy coordination for pandemic preparedness and response. As part of a pandemic treaty, the paper proposes a plurilateral agreement on vaccine supply chain resilience that would include novel and enforceable disciplines for export restrictions, provisions to trigger coordinated subsidies across countries to jointly scale up vaccine output and input production capacity, and market surveillance initiatives on supply chain transparency.","PeriodicalId":46864,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Economic Law","volume":"106 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135473738","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ABSTRACT International organizations are essential actors in the international legal system and play key roles in all aspects of international law, from its creation to its enforcement and implementation. As their work becomes progressively more significant and specialized, international organizations have also embarked on many new initiatives and have adopted new working methods. An interesting example of this development is the effort of United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Working Group III (WGIII) to reform Investor–State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), a unique international dispute settlement mechanism that permits a foreign investor to bring a claim against a State on issues related to international investment law. At a time of declining international codification, UNCITRAL WGIII’s plan to reform ISDS stands out as remarkably ambitious. It is also responsive to identified vacuums and needs and is likely to lead, at least partially, to a degree of reform of ISDS. In this short contribution, I first introduce the codification of international economic law issues as distinct from other kinds of codification. I then introduce UNCITRAL and explore the work of UNCITRAL WGIII more specifically. In particular, I explain and assess the ISDS reform process as an example of an ongoing transformation of the work of international organizations and a new initiative on which they embarked using a specific methodology of selecting issues, developing draft texts, and serving as a place for drafting negotiations.
{"title":"The Transformation of International Organizations—Specialization, New Initiatives, and Working Methods—Some Observations on the Work of UNCITRAL Working Group III","authors":"Chiara Giorgetti","doi":"10.1093/jiel/jgad004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jiel/jgad004","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT International organizations are essential actors in the international legal system and play key roles in all aspects of international law, from its creation to its enforcement and implementation. As their work becomes progressively more significant and specialized, international organizations have also embarked on many new initiatives and have adopted new working methods. An interesting example of this development is the effort of United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Working Group III (WGIII) to reform Investor–State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), a unique international dispute settlement mechanism that permits a foreign investor to bring a claim against a State on issues related to international investment law. At a time of declining international codification, UNCITRAL WGIII’s plan to reform ISDS stands out as remarkably ambitious. It is also responsive to identified vacuums and needs and is likely to lead, at least partially, to a degree of reform of ISDS. In this short contribution, I first introduce the codification of international economic law issues as distinct from other kinds of codification. I then introduce UNCITRAL and explore the work of UNCITRAL WGIII more specifically. In particular, I explain and assess the ISDS reform process as an example of an ongoing transformation of the work of international organizations and a new initiative on which they embarked using a specific methodology of selecting issues, developing draft texts, and serving as a place for drafting negotiations.","PeriodicalId":46864,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Economic Law","volume":"119 3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135638018","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Preserving the Crown Jewel","authors":"Stratos Pahis","doi":"10.1093/jiel/jgad006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jiel/jgad006","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46864,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Economic Law","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42826743","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal Article Excellence in Reviewing Award: Journal of International Economic Law Get access Journal of International Economic Law, Volume 26, Issue 1, March 2023, Page 2, https://doi.org/10.1093/jiel/jgad003 Published: 30 January 2023 Article history Received: 09 January 2023 Accepted: 10 January 2023 Corrected and typeset: 30 January 2023 Published: 30 January 2023
期刊论文评审优秀奖:Journal of International Economic Law获取《国际经济法杂志》2023年3月第26卷第1期第2页https://doi.org/10.1093/jiel/jgad003出版时间:2023年1月30日文章历史收稿时间:2023年1月9日接收时间:2023年1月10日校排版时间:2023年1月30日出版时间:2023年1月30日
{"title":"Excellence in Reviewing Award","authors":"","doi":"10.1093/jiel/jgad003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jiel/jgad003","url":null,"abstract":"Journal Article Excellence in Reviewing Award: Journal of International Economic Law Get access Journal of International Economic Law, Volume 26, Issue 1, March 2023, Page 2, https://doi.org/10.1093/jiel/jgad003 Published: 30 January 2023 Article history Received: 09 January 2023 Accepted: 10 January 2023 Corrected and typeset: 30 January 2023 Published: 30 January 2023","PeriodicalId":46864,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Economic Law","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135491277","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ABSTRACT Global trade can be an important part of the solution to modern global challenges, just as the rule-based multilateral trading system played an instrumental role in fostering peace and prosperity since its creation in 1947. Trade has been a lifeline for producing and accessing critical medical supplies from face masks to vaccines almost since the beginning of the pandemic; trade is also an important means for adapting to climate change as well as cutting emissions; and trade has helped net-food-importing countries faced with food crisis. For trade to be a part of solutions to the range of modern challenges, the role of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is indispensable, and it must be updated for it to remain fit for purpose. The continuing reinvention of the WTO will not be easy, but the outcomes of the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) are a good start. In this special contribution to the Journal of International Economic Law, I reflect on the WTO’s role for the twenty-first century and beyond and how the MC12 outcomes will serve as a foundation and a platform for Members to build on to reinvent the WTO.
{"title":"The WTO’S Contribution to the Challenges of Global Commons","authors":"Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala","doi":"10.1093/jiel/jgad005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jiel/jgad005","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Global trade can be an important part of the solution to modern global challenges, just as the rule-based multilateral trading system played an instrumental role in fostering peace and prosperity since its creation in 1947. Trade has been a lifeline for producing and accessing critical medical supplies from face masks to vaccines almost since the beginning of the pandemic; trade is also an important means for adapting to climate change as well as cutting emissions; and trade has helped net-food-importing countries faced with food crisis. For trade to be a part of solutions to the range of modern challenges, the role of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is indispensable, and it must be updated for it to remain fit for purpose. The continuing reinvention of the WTO will not be easy, but the outcomes of the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) are a good start. In this special contribution to the Journal of International Economic Law, I reflect on the WTO’s role for the twenty-first century and beyond and how the MC12 outcomes will serve as a foundation and a platform for Members to build on to reinvent the WTO.","PeriodicalId":46864,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Economic Law","volume":"76 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135440713","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ABSTRACT Like the Journal of International Economic Law, which we celebrate with this special 25th Anniversary issue, investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) came to life in the second half of the 1990s. The aim of this contribution is to ask whether ISDS has gone through any ‘transformation’, that is any ‘complete’ or ‘radical’ change, in the last twenty-five years. The article argues that, while a lot has changed in two and a half decades, in particular, the amount and breadth of criticism against investor-state arbitration, ISDS remains fundamentally the same, at least if one focuses on the practice of ISDS.
{"title":"ISDS and Its Transformations","authors":"Federico Ortino","doi":"10.1093/jiel/jgac066","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jiel/jgac066","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Like the Journal of International Economic Law, which we celebrate with this special 25th Anniversary issue, investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) came to life in the second half of the 1990s. The aim of this contribution is to ask whether ISDS has gone through any ‘transformation’, that is any ‘complete’ or ‘radical’ change, in the last twenty-five years. The article argues that, while a lot has changed in two and a half decades, in particular, the amount and breadth of criticism against investor-state arbitration, ISDS remains fundamentally the same, at least if one focuses on the practice of ISDS.","PeriodicalId":46864,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Economic Law","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136043446","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ABSTRACT The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is by design an economic institution, with an exclusive economic mandate. Traditionally, this has meant that the IMF focused its work on monetary, fiscal, exchange rate, and financial sector policies, along with closely related structural aspects. In recent years, however, the IMF’s work has widened to cover a broader range of substantive topics, including governance and anti-corruption, climate change, fintech and the digitalization of finance, inequality, social protection, and gender. This article posits that the IMF’s work in these emerging areas with demonstrated criticality for the institution’s macroeconomic and financial stability mandate is not an expansion of the IMF’s mandate, but rather reflects continuing evolution in the economic understanding of what is critical for the achievement of that mandate. The article explores how macro-criticality is assessed within the IMF’s legal and institutional framework in the context of the IMF’s core powers generally and with a special focus on governance and anti-corruption, climate change, and gender. It also discusses the IMF’s strategies for engagement with its member countries in these three areas.
{"title":"The IMF’s Evolving Role Within a Constant Mandate","authors":"Kristalina Georgieva, Rhoda Weeks-Brown","doi":"10.1093/jiel/jgac064","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jiel/jgac064","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is by design an economic institution, with an exclusive economic mandate. Traditionally, this has meant that the IMF focused its work on monetary, fiscal, exchange rate, and financial sector policies, along with closely related structural aspects. In recent years, however, the IMF’s work has widened to cover a broader range of substantive topics, including governance and anti-corruption, climate change, fintech and the digitalization of finance, inequality, social protection, and gender. This article posits that the IMF’s work in these emerging areas with demonstrated criticality for the institution’s macroeconomic and financial stability mandate is not an expansion of the IMF’s mandate, but rather reflects continuing evolution in the economic understanding of what is critical for the achievement of that mandate. The article explores how macro-criticality is assessed within the IMF’s legal and institutional framework in the context of the IMF’s core powers generally and with a special focus on governance and anti-corruption, climate change, and gender. It also discusses the IMF’s strategies for engagement with its member countries in these three areas.","PeriodicalId":46864,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Economic Law","volume":"54 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136082613","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From the Editors in Chief","authors":"K. Claussen, S. Puig, M. Waibel","doi":"10.1093/jiel/jgad002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jiel/jgad002","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46864,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Economic Law","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45560083","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ABSTRACT After 25 years of the practice of World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement, the system’s ability to continue performing that function has been significantly hampered as a result of the lack of a consensus among WTO Members to (re)appoint Appellate Body Members, resulting in the Appellate Body being defunct as of December 2019. This brief contribution reflects on the various narratives of the causes of the current state of WTO dispute settlement and comments on the role of the Appellate Body. It concludes that no sole responsibility for the current deadlock can be attributed to the Appellate Body. Undoubtedly, the Appellate Body could have decided differently on certain questions. However, asking whether or how the Appellate Body dug its own grave fails to acknowledge the role of WTO Members, collectively and individually, in preserving binding, compulsory WTO dispute settlement providing for appellate review.
{"title":"25 Years of Law and Practice at the WTO: Did the Appellate Body Dig its Own Grave?","authors":"Isabelle Van Damme","doi":"10.1093/jiel/jgac067","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jiel/jgac067","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT After 25 years of the practice of World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement, the system’s ability to continue performing that function has been significantly hampered as a result of the lack of a consensus among WTO Members to (re)appoint Appellate Body Members, resulting in the Appellate Body being defunct as of December 2019. This brief contribution reflects on the various narratives of the causes of the current state of WTO dispute settlement and comments on the role of the Appellate Body. It concludes that no sole responsibility for the current deadlock can be attributed to the Appellate Body. Undoubtedly, the Appellate Body could have decided differently on certain questions. However, asking whether or how the Appellate Body dug its own grave fails to acknowledge the role of WTO Members, collectively and individually, in preserving binding, compulsory WTO dispute settlement providing for appellate review.","PeriodicalId":46864,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Economic Law","volume":"206 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135393361","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：